


Sixth Year

by HyperMint



Series: Summer Contacts [7]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, NCIS
Genre: Characters from other shows making appearances, Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 02:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 54
Words: 124,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/616895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperMint/pseuds/HyperMint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sixth Year turns out to be an exciting year for the Trio.</p>
<p>However, someone's disappeared, someone's being targeted and the Trio learn a valuable lesson about listening to their instincts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. When Harry met Sally

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable material, but I have put my own spin on a few things.
> 
> AN: Sally is a character making an appearance from Being Human (North American), but I have a story still in the works about how she and Tony met. 
> 
> I honestly don't know if I like how this chapter begins, but I sort of need to set up things for future purposes.
> 
> A new year and a new story.
> 
> Grab some leftover Egg Nog and enjoy.

Harry Potter sighed as he hung around the park.

He really wanted to be in the Magical world again. He hated it in the Muggle. Well, to be fair, he hated it in this corner of the Muggle world.

He was sure that all of the Muggle world wasn’t bad. He’d met a lot of people that was nice to him and they were Muggle.

Like the Grangers.

Hermione was his best female friend and she was Muggleborn. Her and her parents were really nice to him.

A lot of other wizards and witches had Muggle backgrounds, too, in one way or another.

Some wizards, like the Weasley family, really liked Muggles and wanted to understand them. They probably had never had much contact with them before, but the wanting to understand part was there.

Then again, they might never be able to understand, but it was the thought that counted.

And it wasn’t just in Britain, either.

During the summer before his Third Year - and subsequent knowledge of his Godfather, Sirius Black -, he’d run into an Italian-American Agent at the Leaky Cauldron.

Tony DiNozzo was an Agent with the Muggle agency called NCIS, or Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He also did liaison work with the Wizard agency known as MNP, or Magical Naval Personnel.

Harry had been under the impression that they would never again cross paths when Tony had to regretfully take his leave and hadn’t had reason to think differently until the World Cup before Fourth Year, when Harry had again run into Tony after having gotten lost. That was when Tony had met both Ron and Hermione and the Italian had kept in touch with them all through Fourth and into Fifth.

It had been during the Christmas holidays in Fifth year that Tony had shown up to spend some well-deserved vacation with them. It was also during then that Harry, Ron and Hermione learned about his team and their many flaws and - especially - their behavior towards Tony himself.

Oh, it wasn’t so much as spoken as it was written all over his face and body language that he was fast getting to the point that he was probably thinking of leaving NCIS. Harry had no doubt in his mind of just _how_ he was thinking of leaving. Whether by Tony’s own hand or that of his team’s, purely for the lack of trust they gave him to do his job. Harry could see that Tony’s own trust was starting to wane, unless it was already gone, that is.

Harry sighed and looked up at the clouds.

He couldn’t wait for his pick-up to arrive.

His birthday had come and gone and he’d received presents from all his friends, including a sketch from Tony of Hedwig and Pig that Harry recognized from Tony’s drawing book last Christmas.

That same day, a letter came for him from one of the school owls telling him that he would be picked up by someone from the Order on this date at this time, in this location.

Harry had been sitting here for twenty minutes and no one from the Order had come to collect him.

Did they forget about him or something?

Ron, Hermione and Tony would never do that. No matter how busy they got.

He knew Sirius Black and Remus Lupin would never do that, either. However, Sirius was a wanted man for murders that he was framed for by someone he had believed was a friend and Lupin was off doing Order things and was probably still away.

Harry checked the time again and looked down at his packed trunk beside him. Maybe they wanted him somewhere else in the park?

He looked around and smiled slightly as he caught sight of a lady that didn’t look that much older than him. It was like she was shy or indecisive, curling a lock of her shoulder-length curly brown hair around a finger, brown eyes studying him in return.

She wore black leggings, flat shoes that looked like something one of the girls he went to school with would know the name of and some sort of purple outfit consisting of a purple camisole and some sort of purple sweater over… thing.

She was also staring at him in a way that everyone else did when they recognized him.

“Er, hello?” he studied her warily as she crept closer. “Can I help you?”

“Um, hello. My name’s Sally,” she smiled brightly, cocoa colored skin making her teeth stand out. “You have to be Harry, right? Harry Potter? It’s just that you look a lot like what Tony described you as.”

“Tony?” he frowned at her. “Tony DiNozzo? He’s here?”

“Yup,” she nodded, looking around the park. “He said to look for a teen with - and I quote - ‘bottle green eyes behind glasses that would look better in a different frame, black hair that sort of reminds you of Josh in a way, a lightning bolt scar, a packed trunk and empty birdcage and he better have a radio or I’ll kill him.’ End quote.”

Harry jolted at the mention of the radios that only he, Tony, Ron and Hermione had. The Trio had been given them by Tony for Christmas last year. Outside the four of them, Neville Longbottom and Ron’s sister Ginny really knew about them. “What do you know about the radio?”

“Hey,” she held her hands up. “All I know is that you better have it or Tony really will kill you and - between us - I don’t think he was kidding. He’s had a dark cloud hanging over his head all day and I’m pretty sure I think I know why.”

“Where is he?” Harry asked, keeping her in sight.

“He’s around here somewhere,” she shrugged. “He told me to sit on you until he got here. Sadly, I think he forgot one little thing about that statement.”

Harry was still trying to come up with a response to her when Tony finally ambled into view.

“Hey, kid,” he sighed, taking his sunglasses off to reveal tired green eyes. He was wearing a backwards cap and a jacket with the letters NCIS on the left side, a backpack slung over a shoulder. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Don’t be,” he smiled slightly, shaking his head. “It’s good to see you again,” he added, coming in for a hug, only for the both of them to jump back with a yelp.

“What?” Sally looked between the two of them. “What happened?”

Harry looked around at himself and then up at Tony, not sure himself.

Tony frowned. “Maybe… Neither one of us has had any contact with the other two, right?”

Harry was about to open his mouth and remembered Sally, who was looking at them in concern.

“You two are okay, though, right?” she pointed between them.

Tony ducked his head. “Can you give us a minute?”

Sally stared at him until a light clicked on. “ _Oh_ , I see…” she gave them a look. “This is about that thing that Aidan was laughing himself sick over last week, isn’t it? That thing that you couldn’t tell me or Josh about?”

“Yes, now if you don’t mind?”

Sally gamely wandered off as Harry turned wide green eyes on Tony.

“You told someone?!” he scowled. “But we made a promise not to tell anyone!”

“Yes, but we didn’t go into what would happen if someone found out on their own,” Tony told him.

“How?”

“Because Aidan’s a freakin’ _Vampire_ and they can sense marriage bonds.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was what bound Harry, Ron and Hermione to Tony.

A handful of short months ago, they rang in the New Year with a new drink in fancy cups and ate Pumpkin Patsies off a plate that went along with the cups. Four months later, they realized that their sicknesses went away the longer they stayed in each other’s company. That was when the four of them found out that they had evidently been given the Black Family Marriage Set.

Because of Harry’s status in the Wizarding world - and a few other things, namely Tony’s continued freedom from Azkaban for something that wasn’t his fault -, they had agreed to keep the secret between the four of them and Tony’s divisional supervisor at the MNP. This was under the reasonable scenario that if they got sick after months of no contact, none of them wanted to know what would happen if one of them died.

Tony frowned at his blank look. “Why does this look like news to you?”

“Moony touched on that in Third Year,” he mused. “And we didn’t quite get around to it in Fourth…”

“Let me guess,” he rubbed his eyes. “You should have learned more about them in Fifth Year. Big surprise.”

Fifth Year hadn’t been much of a school year. The Ministry employee - Delores Umbridge - had tried to take over the school and her skills as a _respectable_ member of staff left much to be desired. So, no one really learned much, but Harry had led a Defense club called Dumbledore’s Army that focused on what they should have learned. Spell-wise, that is.

“Yeah, I reckon,” Harry shrugged. He looked around. “So, who was supposed to come get me?”

“Who knows,” Tony shook his head, taking his wand and shrinking Harry’s trunk down to the size of a matchbox. Dropping it in his pocket, Tony handed Hedwig’s empty cage to Harry and tilted his head in the direction he’d come from. “All I understood was that someone screwed up and Vance had to pull me off a crime scene. I was just wrapping up, you understand, helping another team, but a crime scene is a crime scene. You just don’t drop everything to help out a famous person as a favor to anyone. But, I mean, it’s you and you can’t just be left alone like a sitting duck where doing magic can get you in trouble.”

Noting his friend’s bitter tone, Harry scuffed a shoe. “I was just doing what the letter told me.”

“No,” Tony sighed. “It’s not you I should be yelling at. You don’t know what’s going on as much as I do. I bet you a Galleon that it’s one of _Those_ meetings,” he offered.

It was something that Tony and the Trio got into the habit of calling Order meetings with that bored tone and an eye roll because of the fact that it could mean just about anything. Sure, that might be a sign of disrespect, but as Tony had pointed out to a sputtering Molly Weasley, ‘unless I miss my guess, this is supposed to be a secret. It doesn’t work if we call them _Order_ meetings with awe and reverence. Sort of defeats the purpose.’

“I don’t know, I always thought that…”

“They were supposed to look after you, right? I don’t know. I do know that I’m supposed to take you to the Burrow and stay there until someone can come back or something. You, the four Weasley kids and Hermione are the ones under lock and key. As per Mama’s orders,” Tony smirked.

“But how did Director Vance know to contact you?” he frowned slightly.

“I think Kingsley sent word,” he shrugged. “He couldn’t make the meeting without alerting someone, so he had to stay where he was. It isn’t exactly unusual to have contact between Ministry Aurors and Magical personnel of the international communities. It would have made more of an issue if Dumbledore was contacted, as you know.”

Albus Dumbledore was still a … what did Tony call it? Oh, Person of Interest to the Ministry. So was he, come to think of it.

“Is it safe to come back now?” Sally returned to them.

“Yeah,” Tony grinned. “Ah, speaking of,” Tony brought Harry to a stop on the edge of the park woods. “Sally, I want you to stand in front of Harry. Okay, now Harry, I want you to look into Sally’s eyes.”

Green stared into chocolate brown. “Okay…”

Tony watched them stare at each other. “Use your magic to find her.”

“Do what?” Sally turned to frown at him. “I thought he wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“This is more of a natural magic and Harry is going to be gently leading that magic to you. Harry, I’m actually surprised they don’t teach you guys how to do this. First Years have a harder time with it, but it should be second nature to you because of how much your magic has grown.”

“Are you sure it’s okay for me?” Harry looked at him skeptically. “I don’t want to get another letter telling me that I’m doing magic.”

“It’s a kind of wand-less magic,” he assured. “First Years in America are encouraged to practice as much as they can during the summer. It’s a natural thing that should alert you to any dangers. You’re supposed to be taught to gently focus your magic at people to see if they pose any threat to you. If you decide that they pose one, you are to go to the nearest person that you trust and have them take care of it.”

“Sort of like a defense system for little kids,” Sally mused.

“Right. But that’s just one part of it. When you get older, you find other uses for it. It’s kind of similar to Apparating, but you don’t actually go anywhere. So, eyes forward. Harry, while you are staring into her eyes, dip inside to where your magic reserve is. You feel the edge of it? Take a little piece of it and slowly bring it to the surface. Got it? Now, concentrate. As you lead it out of you, try to lead it to Sally.”

Harry frowned slightly, eyes unfocussed as he gave his magic a little push. Almost immediately, he found a ball of energy in his immediate area. ‘Was that Sally?’ Harry turned to Tony and was almost blinded.

“I knew I was forgetting to tell you something,” he smiled ruefully. “It’s different for you because of certain things that have recently happened to you.” In other words, it was the marriage bond. “Me, Ron and Hermione all have that luminescence to you. Tuning that down is something we’ll need to work on later, but focus on Sally.”

Harry was back to having that ball in front of him. Tilting his head, he made his magic brush against the ball.

“I have to tell you, that is the craziest thing I’ve ever felt,” Sally spoke. “And that’s saying something.”

Something was wrong. Harry didn’t look at Tony, but let his magic brush against him. Tony felt different from Sally. He felt… well, familiar, but that was their magic mixing because of the bond. Other than that, Tony felt a little more solid than Sally did. Sally… felt like energy. Heavier than the air around them, but she didn’t feel… together, if that made sense. As if he could easily push her around with his magic and she would float where he led her.

“What?” Tony smiled slightly, recognizing his look. “What does Sally feel like to you?”

“Not… all there? She feels different than you do. You feel solid. She doesn’t. Like… when you walk into a patch of fog and there’s this weightless kind of feeling…”

“You can tell all that from just that brush?” Sally grinned, staring at him with new light. “That is awesome.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Tony nodded. “Now, think.”

Sally was a ball of energy, who felt like a cloud of fog, more or less…

Suddenly, the Knut dropped and his eyes went wide.

Tony grinned as the light clicked on. “She’s a ghost. Granted, she’s not a Magical one, but Muggle ghosts appear all the time.”

“If that’s the case,” Sally frowned at him. “Then why did you pick the job that deals with them? Er, us?”

“It gets easier to make them understand that I can’t always help them even though I can see them. And there’s also this little beauty,” he added, holding up his badge case. “It’s spelled so that I’m not overwhelmed out on cases. Vance also has wards up. It’s policy that Directors have NCIS offices spelled against most of the spirits so we don’t go nuts as we work. Sometimes, personal ghosts slip through and that is something that we need to work with.”

“So, I basically have no chance to visit,” she twisted her mouth.

“Oh, we can make exceptions for, like, relatives that need some closure to know that loved ones are taking care and stuff like that.”

“That’s sweet,” she smiled.

“I’m sure I can get you a pass.”

“But I don’t think I’ll be able to pass as a relative.”

Tony shrugged. “Adopted cousin. I’ll work it out.”

Sally turned back to Harry. “What? Oh, come on. You’ve seen other things crazier than me. Well, I certainly hope so.”

“But you’re nothing like Myrtle,” he frowned. “Oh, she’s a ghost that haunts the Girls’ Bathrooms on the Second floor.”

“Sally is dead and that’s the only thing they have in common,” Tony said dryly.

“You’ve met her, too?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Guys, I should probably get back to the house and you two have to get going, if I understood.”

“Right,” Tony nodded, suddenly all business. “Sal, you should know how to get back to the house by now. Just focus on your ring and you should get back, no problem. Harry, we should have already left.”

“Bye, boys,” she waved as Tony dragged him off. “See you.”

“Bye,” Harry looked over his shoulder and waved before he blinked and she was gone.

Minutes later, Tony stopped them at an alley between two walls. “You’ve never done Apparition, have you? Grab my arm and I’ll take you to the Burrow.”

Harry did and immediately regretted it as it felt like he was squeezed through a tube.

What felt like a few years later, Harry was slammed onto something soft and squeaky so hard he couldn’t breathe for a minute. Once he’d come back to himself, he was aware of footsteps hurrying toward them.

“Tony! Harry!” Hermione Granger burst into what Harry finally recognized as Ron Weasley’s bedroom to pounce on Tony, who was starting to get up and fell back down when her weight landed on him.

“About time,” Ron loped after her. “We were about to call Mum.”

“What happened, anyway?” Harry struggled up off the bed he usually slept on when he was over. “I was waiting for awhile.”

“We don’t know, either,” Ron shrugged. “Dumbledore called an emergency meeting.”

“But didn’t he know that I was going to be here?” Harry frowned.

“It must have been some emergency if they left you unprotected,” Hermione sat up and grabbed him in a hug. “It’s really good that Tony managed to get to you.”

“Does anyone know who was supposed to show up?” Tony wheezed, relaxing back on the bed.

“I think it was one of the new members,” Ginny answered from the door.

“Think they’re at the meeting?” Ron frowned at the three on the bed.

“I don’t want to think about what happened if they forgot,” Ginny mused.

“This is assuming they actually got the information in the first place,” Tony interjected. “Vance told me that Kingsley got a hold of him to get me there.”

“Speaking of which,” Hermione frowned. “Don’t we have anti- Apparition wards up?”

“Well, Dumbledore left Kingsley this here pendant,” he fished said pendant - a small flame - out of his shirt. “I think it was left over from another mission. Anyway, it’s spelled to get through certain anti-Apparition wards. This was one of them.”

“It’s lucky he still had it,” Hermione smiled slightly. “I know how Harry hates the Floo.”

“I don’t know which is worse,” he told them.

“At least you’re still alive,” Tony told him. “I’ve seen people die in the Floo system.”

“Really?” Ginny frowned. “How? Naturally?”

Tony looked at them thoughtfully. “I know you hate it when adults say ‘I’ll explain when you’re older’, and I know you’ve gone through a lot already, but when I say ‘I’ll explain when you’re older,’ I mean it.”

“Fair enough,” Ron shrugged. The older wizard knew what he was talking about. “But, what if He got the one who was supposed to get Harry?”

“I don’t think the Dark Lord is the one they need to worry about, though,” Ginny pointed out, seeing Tony’s look.

“You’re probably right,” Hermione nodded. “So. Do you think they’ll be done soon?

***

 


	2. Padfoot and Moony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapters in this story are probably going to end up either short or long every installment. 
> 
> I don't want to overwhelm you or anything, but then I don't want to be giving too much away too soon.
> 
> If you don't understand something, or something doesn't seem right, don't worry. It will either be explained later or put that way for a reason.
> 
> And at the end of the story - if it still doesn't make sense, it probably won't until the next story.
> 
> Enjoy.

***

Almost two weeks later, Harry smiled widely as he came downstairs to find his Godfather waiting for him. “Sirius!”

“Hey, Kiddo,” he grinned as he caught him in a bear hug. “How’s your summer been so far?”

“Not bad,” Harry told him, spotting Ron and Hermione on the couch with Remus “Moony” Lupin. “Hi, Professor.”

“If you need to call me anything,” he dryly remarked, coming forward for his own hug, “I would prefer ‘Moony’, if it’s all the same to you.”

“It’s a habit,” Harry told him.

“That’s what we said,” Ron agreed.

“Are you staying long?” Harry turned back to Sirius. They’d briefly seen each other two weeks earlier when Sirius had come along to check that Harry was alright and that Tony had gotten to him in time before anything happened. They still weren’t entirely sure what had happened to the Order member that was supposed to have gotten him, as Rica Dale hadn’t been at the meeting. Everyone was still trying to figure it out.

“No,” Remus broke in. “I’m afraid not. We probably won’t see you again after this. We will be on separate assignments for Albus and won’t even be allowed to work together.”

“Don’t expect many letters, if at all,” Sirius wrapped an apologetic arm around Harry. “We won’t be able to send Post after September. Not even to each other.”

“Kingsley will be the only one to know our exact locations,” Remus explained. “Not even Albus will receive a report. Extra precautions, you understand.”

It was for the best, especially after Umbridge. The Ministry employee, they had recently found, was still under a lot of investigation and there were many things that had been stacked up against her.

‘Couldn’t have happened to a nicer Ministry employee,’ Ron had spat. ‘I think Azkaban would be too good for her, if they decide to toss her in there.’

“Have you heard from Tony since he was here?” Sirius wanted to know.

“No,” Hermione shook her head. “He said he would drop by later this week before he left.”

“Well, we get to work next week,” Remus noted. “I hope we see him before then.”

He and Sirius got along with Tony alright, but that was about it. As much as Sirius knew how Harry and his friends trusted the Italian, there were still things that Sirius wasn’t about to tell Tony about at least until he’d hung around for a few more years…

Things that Harry had already told Tony, but Sirius had never thought to ask.

Such as the dog form, Padfoot, that Sirius could turn in to.

“Yeah,” Sirius nudged his oldest friend teasingly. “Maybe because he doesn’t mind you being a werewolf?”

“It’s a factor,” he smiled crookedly. Harry and Hermione had heard the story of the Revelation, as it were. The Headmaster of Hogwarts had dumped Tony on Number Twelve’s doorstep so suddenly and explained that he’d be staying there so hurriedly that Remus had taken one look at the new arrival and immediately told him that he was a werewolf.

Tony had just stared at him before telling him that he’d never spent time with one before and that he was looking forward to it.

Ron had asked him if he’d spent time with many others like Remus and Tony had answered negative, but had told them that he’d gone to school with a few vampires. One of them had been in his year and House. After that, Tony acted like he actually forgot about Remus being a wolf. That just endeared him to the man even more since Remus had encountered few in his life that would accept him so easily.

The Weasley matriarch chose that time to bustle into the Burrow’s sitting room and announce that a late lunch was ready. Two cracks were heard, heralding the arrival of the twins - Fred and George - in the kitchen.

Harry waved his Godfather ahead with Remus and Mrs. Weasley while he and Ron and Hermione looked at each other.

“Do you think they know what happened to the member that was supposed to get Harry here?” Ron questioned.

Hermione shrugged. “If they do, they need to tell us. But we know that they won’t. I’m betting that Tony went and investigated on his own. I’m hoping he found something.”

“Tony say anything on the radio?” Harry looked from one to the other.

“No,” they negated, all having had their radios with them.

Hermione bit her lip. “Even if Tony wanted to contact us, we still hadn’t managed to get the signal to go very far.”

That was true. At this point, since Harry had arrived, they had experimented with the signal and they could now talk to each other from Ron’s room to the other side of the orchard.

It was a far cry better than across the Common Room…

“But Harry would be the one he calls,” Ron noted. “We all know that Harry’s the favorite out of the three of us.”

Harry just sighed.

Yes, Harry had connected with Tony.

Yes, he had been delighted that they would keep in touch. But he knew that Tony wouldn’t just leave Ron and Hermione out in the dark like they seemed to believe.

Tony had told him about the Marine belief that no-one would be left behind. Harry couldn’t help but agree.

Ron and Hermione had been there since the beginning of Harry’s magical journey and it only fit that they should be there for this new chapter in his life, especially since they were impacted, too.

Sirius suddenly walked back out of the kitchen. “What secrets are you three sharing?” he teased.

“Oh, nothing you’d be interested in,” Hermione lightly commented, standing and smoothing her skirt. “Is everyone in the kitchen already?”

Grey eyes leveled at them with an unreadable expression.

“Er, Sirius?” Ron straightened as grey eyes landed on him. “Alright, mate?”

They looked at each other nervously as Sirius continued to study them.

“Harry,” he suddenly spoke. “I’m going to need the mirror I gave you. Do you have it?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Harry looked at the stairs. “D’you want it now?”

“It can wait,” he suddenly smiled. “Just make sure you give it to me tonight. What’s going on with you three? You lot are awfully jumpy.”

“It’s just you,” Hermione defended. “This is how we always are, remember?”

“Yeah, but that was Number Twelve,” he frowned. “This is the Burrow, right? I don’t think you need to be so jumpy in your own home, Ron.”

“You should talk,” he huffed. “Especially being who you are. And you never had to grow up around Fred and George.”

“That’s true,” Harry pointed out, straightening from where he was leaning against the nearest sofa arm. “And you especially didn’t go to school with them.”

“Lucky, you are,” Ron told Sirius. “You and the Marauders never had to be on the other end.”

Sirius kept trying to make them explain that statement, even when they sat down to lunch with the rest of the household. He only stopped pestering when Remus had offered to make him be quiet on the Trio’s behalf.

The others laughed as Sirius put a few people between them before he even finished speaking.

But, that night at dinner, Arthur Weasley came to eat dinner, bringing the news that Professors Dumbledore and Snape would be joining them for lunch.

“I don’t know if I’ll be there,” Sirius complained as he, Remus and the kids lazed about in the backyard. “It can only end in disaster.”

Ron wholeheartedly agreed.

“Now, now,” Remus sighed in a put upon manner. “Sirius, you should be setting an example. You _are_ an adult, after all.”

“Bite your tongue, Lupin!” Sirius demanded. “No way would anyone in their right mind call me an adult with a straight face and mean it!”

Things just went downhill from there as Remus countered, “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m not drunk enough to accuse you of being sane.”

***


	3. Chapter 3

“Well, it’s your own fault, mate,” Ron told Remus the next day. “You started it.”

The werewolf sighed in concession. “I did, didn’t I?” he looked into Ginny’s handheld mirror to study his multicolored locks. “But I did get a few good spells in, though.”

Sirius growled from where George was trying to undo the spells Remus had put on him during the night’s prank war.

“You shouldn’t keep antagonizing him, you know,” Harry advised Remus from where he and Hermione were perusing their school supply lists.

“They’re Marauders,” Fred reminded them from where he was making himself some tea in the kitchen. “They sort of have to be annoying gits. Even to each other.”

“He’s right,” Sirius nodded. “It’s how we burn off energy.”

“Then you guys must've had a lot of energy,” a familiar voice entered the conversation.

“Tony!”

Abby Scuito was the sole reason that Tony knew how to handle Hermione’s launch at him.

“Hey, all,” he set her back on the ground and grinned at the room. “What happened there?”

“Moony was asking for it,” Ron told him, explaining everything that had happened in five words or less.

“I figured that was the case,” Tony had to laugh at the sparkly Sirius Black in the corner and the colorful Remus Lupin safely across the room. “You two need help?”

“I can’t figure it out,” George shook his head. “You’re welcome to try.”

Tony simply waved his wand and the spells that the Marauders put on each other disappeared.

“Thanks, mate,” Sirius smiled in relief as he found himself sparkle-free.

“Hey, Tony,” Ron went to shake his hand, but was pulled into a tight hug.

“Hey, yourself,” Harry was pulled in for a group hug. “Is it lunch yet?”

“We’re waiting for Albus and Severus,” Remus informed him. “And I suppose you were just in the neighborhood?”

“Yup,” Tony let his arms wrap around Harry and Ron’s shoulders on either side of him. “Dumbledore said that he’s got some information that Donners needs and I was told to get it. Don’t look at _me_ ,” he added. “I have no idea what it is, but I do know that I’ll be in a lot of trouble if I don’t get hold of that envelope today.”

Tony steered Harry and Ron into the kitchen with Hermione following and sat them down in a corner away from the others. Ginny was spending the day with some of her friends in Diagon Alley, so it was just them, the twins and Marauders until the others came home.

“So,” Harry spoke up. “Did anyone find out what happened to that member that never came to get me?”

The twins looked at Remus and Sirius.

“We don’t know, either,” Sirius shook his head. “Dumbledore and Kingsley were looking into it.”

The attention shifted to Tony, who smiled slightly. “And why do you think I know anything about this?”

“Because,” Ron looked him over. “You looked like you wanted to do them in.”

Tony shrugged. “Well, as a matter of fact, I did find something. Lupin, Black, wasn’t her name Rica Dale?”

“That’s right,” Remus nodded. “Rica was a new recruit. She hasn’t been seen or heard from since before the meeting some weeks back.”

“We don’t think Voldemort is behind this,” Sirius told them.

“I don’t think he is, either,” Tony agreed. “I managed to look into it and found that she’d left her place to head into Muggle London. Once she was there, she went to a bunch of different places before heading to a Chinese restaurant. She ate alone and left. That’s where the trail ends.”

“That’s some good information, though,” Sirius eyed him.

“I have some people in Muggle London,” he smiled. “I can tell you what she ate, if it helps anything. Er, my contact is very - shall we say - observant…”

“So, none of you or your friends know what happened to her after she ate?”

“She went on the Knight Bus. Wherever she ended up, we haven’t been able to find it. We’ll keep looking, though, and let you know.”

“But I was under the impression that the Ministry would look into her disappearance,” Ron frowned.

“Yeah, but remember,” Tony shrugged. “Disappearances are being reported all the time. What’s one more? Especially, when the Ministry has scapegoats.”

“It’s slim that her disappearance doesn’t have to do with Death Eaters,” Sirius sighed. “But, that doesn’t mean that it was.”

“I do wish we knew what happened to her,” Harry rubbed his eyes. It didn’t seem possible that anyone would ever know.

Soon enough, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came home and Dumbledore and Snape arrived not long after.

Sitting down at the table, the group dug in to the hearty lunch.

“Oh, yeah,” Ron sat across from Remus. “Bill’s getting married next summer, I almost forgot to tell you.”

“I heard about that,” Hermione nodded, next to Ron and across from Tony. “I never did get an answer, though. Who is his fiancé?”

“Er,” Ron looked apologetically at Harry next to him on his other side and across from Sirius. “Remember Fleur Delacour?”

“Fleur?” Hermione repeated. “From Fourth Year? Why in Merlin’s name would they get married?”

“They like each other,” George overheard.

“Yeah,” Fred agreed. “Don’t your parents like each other?”

“They decide to get married because they want to spend the rest of their lives together.”

“It’s a really big decision.”

“Not easily made, let me tell you.”

“They had to think really hard on it.”

“Once you’ve done it, you can’t go back.”

“A big step to make.”

“Not to be taken lightly.”

“ **Certainly not be accident** ,” they chorused.

Unbidden, Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to Tony, who stared back at them.

“What? Why are you looking at me?” he scowled, digging into his sandwich. “I’ve never been married. Have you?”

“Nope,” Ron shook his head.

“Not for a long time,” Hermione added.

“A long, _long_ time,” Harry agreed, the three of them casually stuffing their mouths with the nearest foodstuffs.

“We’re gonna talk later,” Tony told them flatly. “I have this sudden urge to tell you how Probie learned to *not* keep secrets…”

“Looking forward to it,” Harry smiled weakly, not daring to look at him, Ron or Hermione for fear of giving into the slightly hysterical laughter that was trying to bubble out.

“Ah, Tony,” Dumbledore suddenly looked up. “I have the information you requested. I believe that is why you have joined us this afternoon?”

“I can hardly come up with another reason,” Snape suddenly drawled. “I certainly doubt that Agent DiNozzo is here to gossip with those several years his junior. Either physically or mentally,” black eyes leveled on Sirius, who bristled.

“Ah, c’mon, Snape,” Tony grinned at him. “It’s nice to hang out with people you like. _Especially_ people who can’t hex you for one little joke,” Tony nudged Remus at the reminder of earlier.

“I’m sure,” Snape stirred his tea, looking out of place amidst the homey Burrow surroundings. “Although, I’m sure that even Black and Lupin would agree that having children around a strange wizard such as yourself is something to be monitored.”

“Molly,” Albus piped up, smiling an overly cheerful smile. “You have outdone yourself, my dear, on this splendid -”

“I’m sure that Potter, Granger and Weasley seem to be enchanted by you,” Severus paid the Headmaster no mind. “Children such as they still have a lot of things to learn about what kind of adult to trust. Nurturing or a joy to be around. Children should not associate themselves with an adult that is _clearly_ unsuitable. Black, you would be interested to know that your precious Godson’s new friend has an _interesting_ work history, coupled with the fact that not even his own team can trust him for fear of the repercussions. But, I admit that cheerful personality is extraordinarily put together to hide the true nature behind that bright smile. He allows himself to be put into situations that clearly reflects how he really feels about those around him. I know quite well about following orders, Agent DiNozzo, but even I know how flimsy an excuse that can be.”

“That’s quite enough -”

“And,” he cut off Dumbledore yet again. “Allowing yourself to be pushed aside when a fellow Agent seals herself in with an explosive device. I would keep my eye on him, Black, ‘lest Mr. Potter or one of his friends ends up like Agent Todd.”

“ _Don’t_ ,” Tony barked as he slowly turned from his plate to look into unreadable black eyes. His own green was lit from within by a sparked flame. “Don’t bring Kate into this.”

“From what I understand,” the corner of Snape’s mouth quirked upward. “People that you trust don’t trust you for the very simple reason that they end up dead. Sooner or later. And if Mr. Potter was my charge, I would not allow him to have prolonged contact with a trust-betraying, privacy-intruding murderer that even his own family turned their backs on.”

“Severus,” Albus regarded him coldly. “That is enough.” His tone brokered no argument lest he wished to deal with consequences.

“Mrs. Weasley,” Tony’s eyes betrayed his real emotions and those around him could feel a building pressure in the room. “Thank you for the lunch.” Without another word, he got up and left for the orchard.

Harry stared at his plate for a few heartbeats before following him, Ron and Hermione wordlessly trailing him.

***

When Remus and Sirius deemed it safe enough to go looking for them some time later, it was with the forgotten envelope in hand.

“I mean, where does Snape get off on going after Tony like that?” Sirius railed, kicking at a fallen apple.

“I understand how you feel, old friend, but I think Severus brings up a valid point.” Sirius turned to frown at him. “No, hear me out. Tony may be close to Harry, Ron and Hermione, but what do _we_ really know about him? MNP, fine. NCIS, brilliant. We haven’t been spending as much time as we probably should with him.”

“Don’t you trust Harry’s judgment?” Sirius paused to cross his arms. “Yeah, _we_ don’t know Tony very well, but I think that he does that unconsciously. I mean, I don’t believe Snape anymore than I believe that you’re a Dark Creature that should be locked up. Snape knows enough about Tony to hit him where it hurts. And remember Christmas Eve? Harry said that Tony’s trust was betrayed and I believe him. Maybe, because of what had happened to Tony, made him more susceptible to trusting those so many years younger than him.”

“I see your point,” Remus tapped his thigh thoughtfully. “If Tony sees fit to trust someone, he is more comfortable around the Trio because he knows that they won’t hurt him to such an extreme extent.”

“That and I’ve noticed that Tony reminds me of Harry the way he keeps the hurt to himself.”

‘Also like you?’ Remus smiled slightly at him. “And Tony’s reaction at lunch today. Severus really hurt him,” Remus added. “That alone is proof enough that Tony is an innocent that’s had a bad turn of luck. Especially the Agent Todd that Tony seemed even more defensive about.”

The pair continued on their search, comfortable in their thoughtful silence and enjoying the August sun.

“I trust Tony,” Sirius broke the silence a few minutes later. There was something in his tone that made Remus look at him.

“You sound so sure,” he quietly pointed out.

“That I am,” Sirius shrugged.

“May I ask why?”

“You could,” Sirius knocked their arms together. “But I can’t tell you.”

“And why not?” Remus wanted to know.

“I don’t think it’s the right time, is all. Besides, I still need to confirm what I already suspect.”

Remus shook his head. The man made no sense. Well, less than usual. Remus was reminded of Albus in that way. “And when will you have this confirmation?”

“All in good time,” Sirius answered, slowly coming to a stop. “Remus? Didn’t there used to be a pile of leaves around here somewhere?”

“I think you’re right,” he finally realized where they had ended up. “Yes,” he pointed to a nearby tree. “I was with Hermione this morning and saw the twins messing about with some leaves. I distinctly remember them leaving the leaves in a pile right there.”

“And,” Sirius frowned. “I remember running around this area before lunch.”

Looking at each other, they started looking around and soon came to the conclusion that someone had picked up the leaves left in the pile as well as any debris in the immediate area.

“Odd,” Remus shook his head. “I know that no one’s been able to clean up today.”

Sirius walked a little further down the trail and shook his head. “It’s all clear this way, too,” he called back. Remus abandoned his investigation and joined him.

“The cleared area,” Remus pointed, “leads further into the orchard. Perhaps that’s where we’ll find them. This is the most obvious way that they could have come.”

The two, sensing victory, kept walking for another five minutes. All of a sudden, the path ahead was once again cluttered with debris.

“The trail ends here,” Remus mused, looking around. It was by pure accident that he turned all the way around to face the direction that they had come. “There’s something,” he pointed out to his friend. Exchanging looks, they trooped forward to the anomaly that had caught the Wolf’s attention.

“I think I know what happened to the organic debris,” Sirius commented, bracing his fists on his hips as he studied the interesting structure before them with narrowed grey eyes.

The almost dome shape of brown mud and various other things reminded them both of an overturned nest with a tree growing right in the middle of it. Stuck in the dried mud that made the exterior, small and misshapen apples could be seen next to random pebbles – all of it an obvious form of some kind of decoration. Some of those decorations were set in intricately complex designs, even going so far as having the Gryffindor crest just to the left of the only opening to the inside.

Sirius carefully peeked in and saw that their missing four were ensconced inside. “There you all are.”

Harry looked up from where he was studying the leafed interior. “Hi, Sirius, Moony.”

“We wanted to make sure that Tony got his envelope before he left,” Remus immediately withdrew it from his pocket. “Albus and Severus have left,” he added.

Hermione nodded, eyes still on the unmoving figure on the other side of the tree in the center. “Professor Snape isn’t in a very good mood.”

“No,” Sirius agreed. “He’s not. Tony,” he raised his voice a little. “I just wanted to tell you not to listen to Snape. He’s a right git at the best of times. He must have got up on the wrong side of the cauldron this morning is all.”

Ron nodded, sitting between Harry and Hermione. “Don’t let it get to you.”

“You all don’t believe it, though, right?” Tony let his arm flop to his side as he turned his head to stare at them instead of at the ceiling.

“Of course we don’t believe you’re any of those things!” Hermione chided. “And we certainly don’t believe that crock about your friends ending up dead. I’m sure there’s a very good reason for what Professor Snape was talking about.”

“Yeah,” Ron jumped in. “If we were like that, we wouldn’t be friends with Harry now.”

“Thanks, Ron,” Harry sarcastically drawled.

“No problem, mate,” Ron grinned cheekily.

The six of them stared at each other for a moment before Remus looked up. “Who created this?”

“Tony did,” Hermione told them. “He headed straight for the orchard and little sticks, leaves, rocks and apples started flying around.”

“It was really wicked,” Ron smiled widely as Tony finally sat up.

“Yeah,” the Italian stretched with a groan. “I got the idea at school in my First Year in history class. It’s a Native American design. I tried doing it once and I liked it, so I’ve been known to get rid of extra, built-up magic by building these things. You should try it, you might like it.”

Soon, Sirius and Remus had to leave for their separate assignments and Tony waved as the others gave hugs before waving them off, the two Disapparating back to the Burrow to use the Floo.

“It really was amazing,” Hermione resettled on her leaf mat.

“Well, it’s magic,” he lifted a shoulder. “You can do anything you put your mind to. Oh, speaking of which,” he got up and settled closer to them. “I was doing some research on traditional British marriage bonds and I ran across a few things.”

Hermione nodded. “Like how you don’t quite need to be near each other to have a good health?”

“Right,” he nodded before turning to the boys. “If you infuse something with enough magic, you can keep those things with you and we won’t be in the way we were back in April.”

“Can you infuse anything?” Ron thoughtfully rolled a small pebble between his hands.

“Yes,” Hermione nodded. “There’s a special set of spells that deal with different tokens. Like, for an article of clothing or something you’ve just picked up.” 

Ron held up his pebble and Tony nodded. “Right, here’s what I’m understanding,” Ron nodded back. “So, we all take a handful of pebbles, just like this, and infuse our magic to it. Then, we can go for longer if we all exchanged our pebbles.”

“You three have the best of it, though,” Tony pointed out. “You three are always together anyhow. I’m the one that’s going to need those pebbles.”

“And we’ll need pebbles that you infused with your magic,” Harry nodded. It did seem so simple. “How many you reckon we’ll need?”

“There’s a spell that can put them on timers,” Hermione suggested. “Like they can activate on Halloween three years from now if we want.”

“Better not,” Tony grinned. “Merlin forbid I fall down somewhere while as sick as the last time. Remember I had the Plague, so…”

“But wouldn’t Director Vance or Mac cover for you?” Hermione looked up from where she was sifting through the nearest pile of grass to look for a pebble. “Or Agent Palmer?”

“I guess,” he shrugged. “But I don’t really like being fussed over or put in the hospital, so you’ll forgive me for heading it off at the pass.”

They spent two hours finding exactly eight pebbles for Tony, who picked eight out for them.

“You can share them,” Tony commented, absently putting some magic in his eight. “I’m trying to put two months’ worth in each so you can trade off on them until we get in contact again.”

“It’s a good idea,” Harry agreed, putting his eight in his pocket until he could safely do magic without getting another notice from the Ministry. The Trio would infuse eight pebbles separately to give Tony, who would be all by himself in America.

“Yeah, and you three can put one months’ worth in your tokens,” Tony mused. “I thing you can replenish them, too, but I’ll have to ask Donners.”

After Tony walked them back to the Burrow, he – envelope in hand – went back to where he’d made camp.

When the Trio ventured out the next morning, Tony’s wigwam was gone and everything put back in its original place, even to the smallest leaf.

**


	4. Diagon Alley

The first incident of interest happened in Diagon Alley two days before term.

Well, it wasn’t interesting at the time. When magic was involved, accidents were almost guaranteed to happen. Ask Neville Longbottom or Seamus Finnegan, for example.

Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys stumbled out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, just like countless times before.

“Fred and George told us to visit their shop,” Ginny pulled at her mother’s arm.

“And we will, Ginny, dear,” Molly agreed, dusting Harry off. “First, however, we need to get the shopping out of the way. And, Hermione, dear? I know your birthday is in September, so if you like, we can get some ice cream?”

“Thanks, Mrs. Weasley,” Hermione nodded eagerly. Harry, Ginny and Ron echoed her gratitude.

“Not at all. Now, we’ll be off.”

She led the four of them out to the entrance of Diagon Alley and opened the archway.

No matter how many times Harry entered the archway, he was constantly amazed at everything the shops had to offer. He smiled at Hermione, who was looking like she felt the same. It was easy for the Weasley family to walk past the different shops because they’d been there before, probably grew up going there.

Harry and Hermione had been unaware of the Magical world until they got their letters, oh, six years ago, now.

“So, Harry,” Hermione nudged him as they all walked along. “I hear this is where you met Tony. Is that true?”

“Oh, yeah,” he lit up, remembering well the fun he’d had with Tony that day in the summer before Third Year. “Yeah, I did.” He looked around. “See that witch over there?” he pointed at a middle aged blonde. She was surrounded by no less than four barrels of pink, blue, red and white flowers of all kinds.

“What about her?” Hermione wanted to know, eyeing her suspiciously.

“Tony said that she works at a café down the street from where he lives.”

“Really? What’s she doing here, then?” Hermione watched as the blonde stepped in front of Mrs. Weasley, handing her and Ginny blue and white carnations.

“She’s got family in the area. Tony said that she can tell who’s magic just by spending some time with them.”

“Really,” she smiled politely as the blonde approached them, seeing the others waiting for them a few feet away. “Thank you, miss,” Hermione smiled at the red carnation.

“Tony’s favorite,” she winked. “Right, Mr. P?”

“Hey, Susan,” Harry grinned. “How is everything?”

“Oh, as well as you can imagine,” she smiled prettily. “Oh, Harry. I saw our friend just yesterday. He told me to give you this if I saw you before school.” She held out a post-it note. “That Agent Gibbs of his is a real taskmaster,” she winked. “I swear, he’s running poor Tony ragged. Our dear Tony told me once that I make the best coffee,” Susan boasted. “Agent Gibbs is something of an addict.”

“We must be on our way,” Molly called, waving them along.

Harry took the note and thanked her again.

“The magic is in the coffee beans,” she grinned, turning back to her flowers.

“Tony said Susan is one of a few who gets his boss’ coffee just the way he likes it,” Harry continued to Hermione as they joined the others outside Flourish and Blotts.

“Whatcha got there, Harry?” Ron ambled over, hands stuffed in his pockets. “And did you see that witch with the flowers?”

“That’s Susan, one of Tony’s friends,” Hermione told him. “She apparently works two jobs. One here selling flowers and the other in America making coffee.”

“Listen to this,” Harry gestured to the note in his hand.

_‘If you’re reading this version, it means that Susie got the note to you. Now, concerning the tokens we discussed: When you get on the train, make sure that you have them with you. You can infuse them with your magic at any –’_

“Any what?” Ron frowned as Harry trailed off.

“I don’t know. There’s nothing else,” Harry flipped the note over and shook his head.

“Wait a minute,” Hermione stopped his movements. “What’s that?” She took the note from him and pointed at a little star that Tony had drawn in the lower left hand corner.

“Maybe there’s another note?” Ron suggested.

“No…” she lightly touched the star with her finger. The three watched for something to happen. “Oh,” she drooped. “Maybe I was wrong.”

Harry tilted his head at it before playing a hunch and reaching his own finger to touch the little star. He grinned triumphantly as the existing words melted away to be replaced by new.

“It’s keyed to your magic signature,” Hermione mused, giving it back. “I thought so.”

“That’s cool,” Ron nudged his friend. “I wonder if Tony can teach us that trick. It’d be easier to contact Snuffles if we could do that, I bet.”

“We’ll ask,” Harry agreed before continuing from where he had left off.

_‘ – time during the ride. When you get to the school, send them off with a source you can trust. If it’s Dumbledore, tell him it’s for a project / experiment thing that Sonya De Sal is doing. If it’s McGonagall – ’_

Harry found another star on the same corner as before and watched new words replace what he just read.

_‘ - , tell her it’s for a Charms assignment I’m checking over. If it’s Hagrid, it’s something for an upcoming Transfiguration assignment and you want me to check over it. If it’s Snape… well, chuck them all out a window and we’ll think of something else.’_    

“That sounds like something Sirius would say,” Hermione giggled as her two friends roared with laughter.

Ron wiped the tears from his eyes. “I needed that!”

Harry calmed down and looked back at the note. “Then it says ‘GL, TD’.”

“‘Good luck, Tony DiNozzo’,” Hermione translated. “It’s shorthand. My mum and her sister do it all the time,” she explained.

“Well, c’mon,” Ron sighed, turning to the bookstore. “Let’s get our supplies.”

** 

Once they gathered all their books, Harry and Ron went to go look at the recent additions to the Quidditch section as Hermione went to look for Molly and Ginny to tell them that they were ready to go.

“You think Siri’s doing alright where he is?” Harry leaned into Ron to whisper in his ear.

“ ‘Course, he is,” Ron lifted a shoulder. “I mean, Kingsley said he had a system of contacts for all of them. Whoever his contact is, they’ll look out for him, right?”

“I know, but… without the mirror,” Harry shook his head as they rounded a bookshelf.

“Well, we’ve got the radios, right?” Ron wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “I mean, I know Sirius doesn’t have one. Maybe we can ask Tony if we can give him one. ‘Course, if we do, we’ll need to fix the radios to travel farther. Or something.”

“Well, with Tony’s note trick and the radios and the mirrors,” Harry smiled slightly. “We’ll be able to find something to use to make talking easier.”

“Yeah,” Ron agreed, giving him a squeeze. “We’ll hold a group meeting somewhere and talk about it.”

Arriving at their goal, Harry went one way and Ron the other, the pair joining a few other boys in looking through the books on offer.

Harry stationed himself in a corner with the latest edition of ‘ _How to be a Seeker: The Continued Tips and Tricks of Today’s Professionals’_. Losing himself in the pages, it took a moment to realize that he was sharing his corner with a book.

Putting a finger to hold his place, Harry closed his book and stooped to pick the other one up with his free hand intending to re-shelf it. One look at it, however, and he saw it was a journal. He froze, memories of Second Year flashing through his mind. ‘This is the place where Ginny found Tom Riddle’s Diary,’ he swallowed thickly and debated calling for Ron.

He was just opening his mouth to do so when he finally got a good look at it. ‘Well, it’s a girl’s diary,’ he frowned, tilting this way and that.

The cover had a feminine script on pale blue fabric with pink flowers on the lower left corner and upper right. Feeling silly for being scared of a girl’s possession – but still being cautious, mind - , he carefully crouched down to put the forgotten Quidditch book down to open the other one.

_Hello, my name is Adrienne Lewis and I just turned eleven. I’m very excited. My friend Daniel Mayfield is from America and said that if we keep writing for two whole years, we’ll be able to meet. He’s my pen pal. I’ve never had one before._

Harry smiled slightly. Noting the date as August 28th, he frowned. ‘It doesn’t look recent,’ he noted the slightly yellowed pages. Thinking that maybe she’d dropped it when in the shop, Harry stood – wincing as the feeling rushed back to his legs – and shrugged.

“I wonder how old she is now,” he mused, collecting his other book. “Maybe I can get Mr. Weasley to find her so I can return it.” Chuckling as he imagined her reaction on getting a visit from the famous Harry Potter, he returned to where he left Ron and found him arguing with a younger boy. It took a minute, but Harry managed to drag Ron off without alerting the boy of his identity and steered him away.

“Yeah,” Ron smiled sheepishly. “I guess it is time to go, huh?”

The two found Hermione and Ginny near the registers, watching Mrs. Weasley chatting with who was obviously an old friend.

“Who’s that, then?” Ron frowned.

“David Carlin,” Ginny glanced at them. “He’s going to be our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

Harry looked at him with new eyes.

Professor Carlin looked to be around Molly’s age, if a day older. He was a little taller than she, but not as tall as Ron. A little thin, too, but Sirius was far skinnier. His clear blue eyes were focused solely on Molly and it almost seemed like he was oblivious to anything going on around him.

“What do you think, Harry?” Ron poked him. “Is he going to be after you, you reckon?”

“That’s really not funny at all, Ron,” Hermione scolded.

“Just as long as it’s not another Umbridge,” Harry told them. “I’m fine with anyone else.” The others had to agree.

“No one is worse than Umbridge,” Hermione retorted.

“Except for maybe Lockhart,” Ron pointed out. Harry nodded in agreement, remembering the fake that they’d had for a teacher in Second Year.

“No, he wasn’t,” Hermione scowled at them.

“Ah, there you two are,” Molly spotted them and waved the boys over. “Ron, Harry, this is David Carlin. He’ll be teaching you this year.”

“Pleasure’s all mine,” Carlin shook their hands with delight. “Mr. Potter, I see you are good friends with Ron and Ginny. Very good. You see,” he leaned forward, “friends are very useful to have in school. To help you with all sorts of problems, right, Ron?”

“Yeah, sure,” he looked at the man askance.

“And are you a good friend to young Mr. Potter?”

“The best!” Harry interjected. “Couldn’t ask for a better one.”

“Wonderful!” Carlin clapped his hands. “Keep that friendship strong. You know, Ron, I knew your mother in school. We used to study together. Friends are made in school, but it is up to yourselves to keep those bonds from falling apart.” He gave them one last smile before making his good-byes. “I’ll see you all at Hogwarts!”

“I don’t know,” Hermione shook her head some minutes later, as they went to replenish their potions supplies. “Professor Carlin doesn’t strike me as all that dangerous.”

“Yeah, but Quirrell didn’t, either,” Ron huffed. “At least until the end of the year, anyway.”

“I’m sure he’ll do fine,” Ginny said confidently. “He seemed pretty cool to me.”

“How much you want to bet he’ll be after you within the first week?” Ron and Harry snickered, the Boy Who Lived not at all bothered by the various attempts made on his life through the years by their many Defense teachers, though Merlin knew he should be.

Well, except Remus Lupin, of course. 

He was probably the only good teacher they had. Well, Harry had been great, though he would be the first to deny it.

Ginny frowned. “By the way,” she drew the Trio closer. “Did you ever figure out how Tony knew about Dumbledore’s Army?”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “All he said was that we already knew the answer and he wasn’t going to say another word until we’ve told him.”

“That’s cryptic,” Ron huffed.

“That could be a good thing,” Harry pointed out. “I mean, if we found out how he got the information, then maybe the time will come one day when we might have to use it.”

“That’s a good point,” Hermione conceded.

They entered the apothecary and Ginny went to get the ingredients she would need as the Trio went to stock up on some other supplies.

“Oh, no,” Harry suddenly looked inside the bag he held with the books. “I didn’t mean to buy it.”

“Buy what?” Hermione frowned, she and Ron watching as he withdrew Adrienne’s diary. “Harry. Where did you get that?” she snatched it from him.

“I found it.”

“Remember what happened to Ginny?” she hissed at him. “We need to – ”

“Hermione, it’s a little girl’s diary, I know it is,” Harry pointed to it in her hand. “It’s the real thing this time.”

“What about your scar?” Ron nervously questioned.

“That’s my point,” Harry looked to him. “It’s not hurting or anything. The diary belongs to an eleven year old girl named Adrienne Lewis who has a pen pal from America. That’s it. I picked it up because I thought she’d be grateful to have it back. She’d probably lost if or something when she was in Flourish and Blotts, though she’s probably forgotten it by now.”

Hermione studied him, slowly lowering the book to study it.

“It really does seem like a little girl’s book,” Ron offered hesitantly.

“That’s all you want to do?” Hermione scrutinized Harry carefully. “Return it?”

“Yes! I thought maybe Mr. Weasley could help us find her or something.”

Ron whetted his lips. “Just imagine her reaction when you show up at her door,” he weakly joked.

“Okay,” Hermione finally relented. “ _But_ , I will be checking for spells as soon as we’re on the train.”

“I’ll let you,” Harry eagerly agreed.

She smiled slightly. “But you know,” she shrugged, giving it back to him. “We could maybe find her without Ron’s dad. I’m sure that there’re yearbooks and things in the library that I could look at for you…”

“You really think we can find someone without my dad?” Ron eyed her skeptically.

“If what Harry says is true, and she really was eleven, then she must have gone to Hogwarts,” she smiled brightly. “We’ll just have to see what year she graduated and where she is now.”

“We can ask the teachers who’ve been teaching the longest,” Ron suggested.

“Yeah,” Hermione agreed. “We’ll go through the library first and ask the teachers if they remember a student by the name Adrienne Lewis. I’m sure we’ll find her by the end of Christmas if not sooner.”

“A Christmas visit from Harry Potter,” Ron grinned at him. “That’d make her day.”

“Oh, come off it…”

They collected their necessary things and the time passed until they were ensconced at the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.

The joke shop was a beautiful success and Harry had to laugh as Fred and George kept dropping hints about what their co-owner liked and how he was helping them. Hermione wasn’t stupid - far from it - nor was she unobservant. She saw the shared grins between Fred, George and Harry and came to the conclusion that Harry was the silent partner in question.

After almost an hour, Molly rounded up her charges and took them for some of the promised ice cream.

“Hey, Hermione,” Harry leaned closer to her, pausing in eating his sundae. “Me and Tony ate ice cream, too. You know, though,” he thoughtfully cleaned his spoon, “I did tell Tony about what happened in Third Year.”

“And?” she blinked, eating her banana split. “How did he take it?”

“Frankly, I got the impression that he was jealous,” he lifted a shoulder at her incredulous look. “He did bring up an interesting point, though. When we returned to the Hospital Wing, we saw ourselves going back in time. You think we’re still there and time just keeps repeating itself while we move on?”

“It’s one of those things you can’t think about too long,” she shrugged. “You get a headache after a while, thinking about it.”

“And we’re really reliving Third Year over again, even though –”

“Alright,” she pushed his arm. “You made your point, now eat your ice cream!”

They finished their treat in a generally joking atmosphere. Molly checked the time and announced that they had to start on dinner, so they may as well start heading back to the Burrow.

Molly and Ginny went on ahead as the Trio lingered over their ice cream another minute.

Leaving the ice cream parlor, Hermione threaded her arm through Harry’s. “Sirius may be out of touch, but Tony can help. I mean, he’s not your actual Godfather…”

“But he _is_ your husband,” Ron pointed out, crowding Harry’s other side. “Well, technically, I am, too, but… well…”

The other two grinned at him.

“Ron’s right, though,” she continued, going back through the arch to the Leaky Cauldron. “And I’m sure Tony won’t mind standing in for Sirius if you really need him.”

“Yeah, you’re probably – Hermione! Look out!”

She had no time to react as Harry immediately tugged her back into him and out of the path of a runaway cleaning cart, Ron diving to the other side.

“Ron! Hermione! Are you two okay?” Harry steadied her and checked on him.

“Yeah,” Hermione nodded, shaken. “Thanks to you.”

“I’m fine, too,” Ron accepted a hand up and dusted off. “Oi!” he called to a witch running by, presumably going after the cart. “Keep a better handle on that thing!”

“Sorry, sorry!” she puffed. “I don’t know what happened!”

“Are you three alright?” Mrs. Weasley bustled over, having seen the entire incident.

“We’re fine,” Hermione assured, still hanging onto Harry’s arm. She hoped he didn’t mind too much that she needed something to hang onto.

“Well,” she nodded, studying the three for any injury they might not be aware of. “That was exciting, wasn’t it? Now, we really need to be off, so no more dawdling.”

“How about that?” Ron shook his head. “After all we’ve seen and done, we almost get taken out by a cleaning cart.”

** 


	5. Hogwarts Express

The cart incident was forgotten by the time Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron got on-board the Hogwarts Express.

The crowds didn’t change and for that, Harry was grateful, though he would catch parts of conversations about things that happened last term.

The long scarlet train admitted students of all sorts and nationalities and Harry’s group joined the masses loading their luggage on the train, saying good-bye to family and friends – Harry spotted an Order member or two lurking nearby – and reconnecting with House, Year and class mates.

Luckily, Harry found an empty compartment and settled in to watch the crowd before they left. Hermione settled next to him and sighed. Both of them didn’t have anyone to say goodbye to and that was really okay, but…

“I hope we get to see Tony soon,” Hermione took out her small bag of pebbles.

“Me, too.”

They waited until Ron joined them before waving out to the assembled crowd as they finally started moving. Harry sighed as he gratefully sunk into his seat.

“One more year,” Hermione smiled, shaking her head. “Can you imagine?”

“Time flies when your life is constantly in danger,” Ron joked, sprawling across from them. They sat there for a few minutes of comfortable silence until Ginny appeared at the door. “Me, Luna and Neville need a place to sit.”

“Sure,” Harry nodded. “You’re all welcome to.”

“Thanks,” Neville Longbottom joined his dormmates. “It’s a good thing you’re here, Harry. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the DA returning. Anything on that?”

“We met the new Defense professor in Diagon Alley,” Ginny squeezed in between him and her brother. “He’s Mum’s old friend from school. He seems to know what he’s doing.”

“Well,” Harry frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe we can still get together once in a while to review and practice some more on what we did last year and go over the spells we learned in class…”

“I’d like that,” the five of them smiled warmly as Luna Lovegood drifted in. The fifteen year old Ravenclaw sat next to Hermione and nodded. “It’s good to be a part of something, don’t you think?”

“Well, then,” Harry nodded in agreement. “We’ll need to get the word out that we’ll have a meeting sometime soon. Maybe in the next two weeks or so?”

Hermione shook her head. “We’ll have to do it manually, now. I know that a lot of us have seemed to have misplaced our medallions, but I think that we should issue new ones this year.”

“You?” Ron grinned. “Hermione Granger actually lost something?”

“I misplaced mine,” she corrected with a sniff. “It’s not impossible, you know.”

“Okay,” Ginny nodded. “I’ll start at one end. Luna? Will you help me? And Neville, you can start at the other end of the train and we’ll meet in the middle.”

“Sounds good,” Neville agreed, making to stand.

“Wait,” Harry shook his head. As much as he wanted the three of them out to infuse the pebbles that he, Ron and Hermione had hidden on their persons, Harry really preferred to not have to keep being interrupted by people who would go out of their way to stop by. “We should wait until we’re just a little bit closer to the school. That way, we can come up with the stuff that we went over last year to review. And we’ll still need to practice them to get the spells as well as we can. The spells we learn this year will have to go in the schedule, too, but we’ll need to wait on that.”

As Hermione and Ron went to their Prefect meeting two hours into their journey, the group had come up with a good few of the spells that the DA had originally gone over. The first official meeting of the year would be in two weeks and new spells learned in class could be able to be incorporated at any time.

“So, how was your summers?” Ginny asked politely.

“Oh, very interesting,” Luna smiled dreamily. “My father took me to Africa. He has some friends that he hadn’t seen in a long time, so we went there. I was disappointed, though, that the Norfal Fairies weren’t in season. They like cold weather, you know. Since Africa doesn’t really get cold, they hang around during Monsoon Season, though I wasn’t in a good position to see any that might have come near.”

“I hope you get to see them someday,” Harry offered.

“Me, too,” she nodded. “I’m sure to bring you on our next trip. You could probably spot them and they like wizards with green eyes.”

“I just stayed in the area,” Neville shrugged. “Nothing very out of the ordinary happened to me.”

“I’m sure it did,” Harry consoled. “You probably got too caught up in Herbology to think so.”

“But I _am_ making progress in my greenhouse,” he informed them. “It’s all very exciting.”

“Well, I’m happy for you,” Ginny beamed. Potions Master, he was not, but he would gladly take care of any ingredient that came from a plant.

“Oh, yeah,” Neville turned to Harry. “How’s your friend? Toby?”

“Tony,” Harry grinned. “Yeah. He stopped by the Burrow.”

“He doing okay?”

“Yeah, but, um, he knows about Dumbledore’s Army.”

“I remember,” Neville nodded. “Did you figure out how he knows about that, though?”

“No, but he gave us a clue to figure it out. Hermione’s decided that she was going to solve it without help.”

“That’s what she told me,” Ginny confirmed.

“And we’ll be available to help when she needs it,” Harry looked at them all.

“Just say when,” Ginny grinned.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to help,” Neville raised a hand. “I really only met him the once.”

“You could come up with some ideas,” Ginny suggested.

“And you could bond over hating Snape,” Harry told him. “I don’t think Tony likes Snape anyway. Especially what happened after I got to the Burrow.”

“What happened?” Ginny frowned.

“You weren’t there, but Snape said some things that Tony didn’t do anything to deserve,” he scowled at the memory. “We thought for sure he was going to hex Snape.”

“Did he?” Neville studied him thoughtfully.

“No, but it was close. See, Tony’s got a habit that he gets into when his magic is in danger of exploding. He told me, Ron and Hermione that it really started when he was in school. He does a lot of little things at once for as long as he can and that seems to help.”

“It really does,” Ginny agreed. “Sometimes, when you’re really stressed about a class, you can let out a little of your magic. Professor Dumbledore told me once that the school actually soaks in stress fueled magic. That magic is then used to keep the wards from going down. Well, of course, the Headmaster helps to actually keep them up, but the little bursts of magic help to sustain them.”

Harry nodded, remembering that Hermione would sometimes make little origami things with her magic. In their first year, Professor Flitwick had told them that if they really needed an outlet for their excess magic, levitating things was actually a helpful habit to have. He even taught them little charms to help keep their magic from spiraling out of control. Evidently, the Founders had made it so that the school would always be protected with the magic that students used.

It was rather ingenious, really.

Or would be if other people knew about it. It wasn’t exactly a well-known piece of trivia.

Harry idly wondered how Tony dealt with the stress of his two jobs if none but a handful knew he was a wizard. ‘He must constantly be disappearing for hours at a time,’ Harry mused. ‘Maybe there’s some sort of place at the MNP or Vance maybe has a special room that can absorb magic and the different witches and wizards use it. I wonder if there are other wards around the Muggle offices he works in…’

The group spent the next few hours finishing homework and playing a variety of games. They stopped when the trolley made the rounds and Hermione and Ron returned from their meeting.

“Can we go talk to people now?” Ginny frowned at Hermione.

“It’s safe now, I think,” she agreed. Waiting for her, Luna and Neville to leave, Hermione locked the door and drew all the blinds. “Okay,” she returned to her seat and dug out her pebbles. “Now that we’re alone, we can infuse these with our magic.”

“Right,” Ron nodded slightly. “And how do we know if we’ve done it?”

“Simple,” she told them. “All you have to do is channel your magic in small bursts and be careful not to do too much. Tony could use two months’ worth of magic because he’s more experienced than we are. If we do too much on something this small, we risk blowing them up. When you’ve done it, they’ll feel a little warm for a few seconds before going back to their normal temperatures.”

Harry and Ron watched as she closed her eyes and concentrated. A few minutes later, she opened her eyes and smiled slightly. “Now you,” she instructed. Once they got a pebble each, she looked down at her new one. “Close your eyes and imagine the stone as an anchor. Your magic – right now – is a floating cloud. Now, concentrate on a small portion of that cloud and funnel it as best you can to the anchor. Not too much, remember.”

It took some time, but Ron opened his eyes with a triumphant grin. “Wicked,” he smiled down at the small stone in his hand. “It _is_ a bit warm, isn’t it?”

Harry opened his eyes a minute later. “You can actually feel the magic being siphoned,” he smiled wonderingly.

“Exactly,” she grinned at them. “That’s exactly what you need to make happen! Now, hurry. I don’t think we’ll be left alone for much longer.”

They just managed to finish all of the tokens and safely stash them away again when Ginny, Luna and Neville came back. The reports had been positive and Harry couldn’t wait until the meeting came around.

The group of six spent the rest of the time catching up with each other and any visitors that happened to come by. Laughing and joking with everyone was all well and good, but Harry could feel himself getting tired. Ron and Hermione looked like they were also holding back yawns. It was a likely side effect of their earlier actions with the pebbles.

It was just as Harry finally let out a yawn during a lull in visiting when a brunette poked her head in.

“Hello,” Hermione smiled slightly. Her brown eyes noted the younger girl’s lack of House colors on her uniform. “Are you lost?”

“Oh, um, no,” she smiled shyly, grey eyes darting from one occupant to the other. “I was, um, looking for someone.”

Ron immediately glanced at Harry. “Well, you found him,” Ron told her. “He’ll give you an autograph if you give him a Chocolate Frog.”

“I’m not that easy,” Harry retorted, mock scowling at his best friend. At this point in his life, he could see the humor in his unique situation. Plus, the girl looked nervous enough without him adding to it.

Ron thought about it before nodding. “Alright. Two Frogs, then.”

The look on her face clearly showed her opinion on the redhead’s mental stability.

“He’s kidding,” Hermione rolled her eyes at them. “They both are. But, yes, Harry Potter is in this compartment.” Harry waved.

Grey eyes stared blankly behind her wireframe glasses. “…am I supposed to know a Harry Potter?”

Complete. Utter. Silence.

“You don’t know who he is?!” Neville burst out, pointing at Harry.

“Wow,” Ginny stared. “And here I thought everyone knew who Harry was. That _is_ who you were looking for, right?”

“No…” the First Year seemed to realize that she was missing something. “I was looking for my Year-mates.”

After staring at her, completely at a loss, Harry tilted his head. “I don’t suppose you’re Muggleborn, are you?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it,” she cast her gaze down at the carpet.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with being Muggleborn,” Hermione scowled at Harry. “I’m one myself.”

“Do you need help getting back to your friends?” Ginny smiled at her.

“I got turned around,” she lifted a shoulder, eyes still downcast.

“Let’s go, then,” Hermione stood. “I’m Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Sixth Year Prefect. I’ll help you.” Noticing grey eyes glancing around, she scowled at the others.

“I’m Harry Potter,” he smiled slightly, earlier shock tucked away for later. The First Year was clearly uneasy.

“Neville Longbottom,” he sheepishly waved. “And this is Luna Lovegood,” he added, the Ravenclaw glancing up from her upside magazine to give her a smile.

“And I’m Ginny Weasley and this is my brother, Ron.”

“I’ve never met anyone who didn’t know Harry,” he blinked.

The First Year would have eventually responded, but another First Year suddenly materialized next to her and grabbed her arm.

“Ha! Found you. Hey, Summer! I found AJ!”

“Alyssa,” the captive corrected in a tone that Harry recognized as long-suffering. The girls clearly had differing opinions on names.

Her darker counterpart rolled her eyes. “What? You think I’m calling you ‘Alyssa’ for the next seven years? I don’t think so.”

AJ sighed as two more girls, identical to the third, crowded behind her.

“Nice work, sis,” one of them high-fived the other. One had yellow hair things, one had blue and the one still hanging onto AJ had red.

“I’ve never seen triplets before,” Neville noted.

Harry hadn’t either.

“I’m Autumn,” the one hanging onto AJ waved.

The one wearing yellow hair accessories waved, too. “I’m Summer, and this is Wynter,” the one wearing blue waved and grinned.

“Summer, Autumn and Wynter?” Ginny smiled widely. “Any of you know what your House will be?”

The four girls shook their heads.

“We have magic in our family,” Autumn answered. “But no one thought we’d have it. And AJ here is a new addition to the Wizarding family.”

“We figured that one out,” Ron grinned, “when she didn’t know who Harry Potter was.”

“You don’t know who Harry Potter is?” Wynter stared. “ _Everyone_ knows who Harry Potter is,” the triplets pointed at the wizard in question.

Harry noticed AJ getting even more uncomfortable and sighed. “It’s not her fault she doesn’t know who I am. Actually, I like AJ _because_ she doesn’t know who I am.”

“There, see, AJ?” Summer grinned. “Making friends already. You’re a real social butterfly.”

Hermione noted the time. “We’re almost at the station,” she announced. Smiling at the First Years, she told them that she was available to help if they ever needed something during the year and nudged Ron to agree.

“Look for any of us,” Harry added. “We’ll do what we can.”

The girls left them and Ginny, Luna and Hermione went next door where some Ravenclaws were sitting to change, leaving the boys to do the same.

Soon enough, the train pulled into the station and Harry gladly joined the crowd streaming by. He just so happened to spot little AJ looking nervously around and tapped her on the shoulder.

“You’ll be fine,” he assured, remembering his own uneasiness. “Come on, I’ll take you to Hagrid. He’ll make sure you get to school.”

AJ nodded in relief and latched onto his hand as he led her out of the train and away from the crowd to where Hagrid was calling for the First Years.

“Hello, Hagrid,” Harry grinned widely. “This is AJ and she’s really nervous.”

The small brunette looked up at the half giant with wide grey eyes as she half hid behind Harry.

“ ‘Ello, there,” Hagrid smiled widely down at her. “Don’ worry, ‘Arry. I’ll look after your friend meself.”

One of the triplets immediately appeared to take her off Harry’s hands. “We’ll see you later, Potter,” she told him, dragging AJ off to where her sisters were standing.

“Hello, Hagrid,” Hermione appeared next to Harry with Ron behind her.

“Welcome back!” their friend greeted before he returned to calling the First Years.

The Trio went on to the carriages pulled by ‘invisible’ horses, but Harry knew better. Thestrals were only visible to those who have seen death. He wondered if Tony could see them like he and Luna could.

They joined their peers in the Great Hall and chatted as they waited for the Welcoming Feast to begin.

“How was your summer?” Dean Thomas wanted to know.

It was a recurring question with many different answers. Harry knew that people didn’t necessarily go visiting on the train, so he didn’t feel all that guilty about not having seen a lot of his other friends.

Soon enough, McGonagall entered the Hall with the First Years trailing behind her, fresh from their traditional ride across the lake.

“Look,” Ginny pointed. “That’s AJ, right?”

Harry followed her finger and confirmed the brunette in line next to a blond that reminded him of Draco Malfoy.

The Sorting Hat was placed on its three legged stool and sang its annual song, before the First Years were called up.

Autumn, Summer and Wynter Benson ended up in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, respectively. Harry watched as AJ’s name was called and she sat down. Everyone watched as they seemed to be in a conversation until the Hat finally called out ‘Hufflepuff’!

The Hufflepuff table cheered as AJ hopped down and went over to sit next to Summer. Ginny, Neville, the Trio and a few others also cheered, Harry – for one – glad she wasn’t in Slytherin.

When the Sorting was over, Dumbledore gave the signal for the food to start appearing.

“So, Harry,” Ron said after a while. “Any more dreams?”

He absently rubbed his scar. “No. It’s been a while since the last one,” he included Hermione in their conversation. “Maybe he’s backed off.”

“Why, you think?” Ron munched on a roll. “I’d have thought that he would have gone on with whatever he planned even with what all happened last year.”

“Maybe Umbridge upset his plan,” Hermione suggested. “If he was planning on targeting the Ministry, it wouldn’t have worked after Umbridge was arrested because everyone is trying to keep a low profile after what she did. Especially the Americans.”

“Do you think he’s got American Death Eaters?” Ron posed. “Or are they all British?”

“He’s probably thinking up a new plan,” Hermione shook her head. “We need to watch ourselves this year. Who knows what the next plan is.”

“We’re probably being lured into a false sense of security,” Harry frowned. “He’ll strike when we least expect it.”

“Bringing the DA back was a good decision, then,” Ron thumped Harry on the shoulder. “We’ll need to be ready for anything.”

After dessert, Dumbledore stood once again to address the students.

“Welcome, First Years, to our fine school of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” he began. “Welcome back to our other students and teachers as well,” he smiled benevolently at the students in front of him. “We have a new addition to the staff in the form of Professor David Carlin, who has graciously agreed to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“That’s him?” Neville asked as he joined the others in applause.

“Doesn’t look like much, does he?” Ron answered.

“Professor Carlin,” Dumbledore continued as the applause died down, “is one of our former students. He has allowed me to announce that, should any of you need help with anything at all – no matter the class - , he will be available to do the very best he can.”

Blue eyes peered over half-moon spectacles to twinkle in Harry’s direction. “Though, it might also benefit to have groups to study with…”

Hagrid was returning to Care of Magical Creatures, as was Professor Trelawney to Divination after being fired last year. Hermione rolled her eyes as Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil squealed with joy at the fact that their ‘mentor’ was back.

The usual announcements were made and soon it was time for bed.

As the Prefects gathered their First Year charges, Harry managed to catch up to young AJ. “Congratulations on getting Hufflepuff,” he grinned.

“Thanks,” she nodded. Sighing as one of the triplets called for her, she frowned back. “Alyssa!”

“Best to just give up,” Harry advised. “AJ is memorable and it sticks in your mind much better than ‘Alyssa’, nothing against your actual name,” he hastily added.

“I’ve always been ‘Alyssa’,” she frowned, “or Lys, or Aly.”

“There’s already loads of those here,” Harry shrugged. “At least AJ is unique. You just have to give yourself time is all.”

“I guess. Well, goodnight,” she waved, hurrying to catch up to her fellows.

Harry was just making his way out when a hand landed on his shoulder. Whipping around, he came face to face with David Carlin.

“I do apologize, Mr. Potter,” he patted him soothingly. “I meant no intent to startle you.”

“Oh, that - that’s fine, Professor,” Harry smiled slightly. “Did you want to speak with me, sir?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” he smiled warmly. “I was just going to tell you that I look forward to having you in class on Tuesday. Ron, Ms. Granger and yourself.”

“We are, too,” Harry nodded politely.

“Have they already left you?” he chuckled.

“They’re Prefects, sir. They kind of have to,” he shrugged.

“Ah, good, good. Mr. Potter, you have a good night now.”

“And you, sir,” Harry nodded. Carlin let him go and he almost made it out of the hall when he was stopped yet again.

“Mr. Potter,” Albus Dumbledore waited by the side of the double doors, smiling absently as the last of the students drifted past. “If I may have a word?”

“Hello, sir,” Harry eyed him. “I haven’t seen you since the Burrow.”

“My fault, I’m afraid,” he sadly nodded. “I’ve quite missed our little talks. I was wondering – perhaps – if you would be amenable to visiting with me every now and again. To chat, you understand.”

“Er –”

“Oh, you needn’t answer now, of course,” he chuckled, patting his arm. “Give me your answer by the end of the week. I’m afraid I have some business to take care of for the foreseeable future. It would be nice to have a break to gather my thoughts among a friend’s company.”

“Friend, sir?” he blinked.

“I do count you as one of my dearest friends, yes.”

“I’ll think on it,” Harry already knew he was going to agree.

“Then, I shall see you any time on Friday,” Dumbledore nodded, the pair exchanging a handshake to seal the deal. “Also, I don’t suppose our Italian friend is still angry with Severus? I had hoped to smooth ruffled feathers, yet I haven’t had the chance to get Anthony alone.”

Harry blinked for a minute before he remembered that ‘Anthony’ was Tony’s real name. “Snape said some things that I don’t think Tony’s gotten over, yet,” he said truthfully.

“It does take time for old wounds to heal,” Dumbledore’s gaze turned inward. “Yet I have no knowledge of what set Severus on Tony… Ah, well,” he smiled. “If you get the chance, I would like to know if Tony would be available to talk within the next month or so.”

“I’ll ask.”

“Good. Now, off to bed with you. Don’t worry about our dear mutual friends,” he winked. “They are as safe as humanly possible. What you need to worry about at present are your classes if you are aiming to be an Auror. Sweet dreams, my boy,” he nodded, “sweet dreams.”

** **


	6. Chapter 6

** **

The first day of classes went as smoothly as could be expected.

The First Years were constantly asking for directions to classes and inadvertently getting lost on the way.

Second Years were rediscovering the castle and the Third Years were comfortable by now to start settling in right away.

Fourth Years were already at that stage and were helping any of their younger Housemates should they be needed.

Fifth Years were to start studying for OWLs almost right away and Sixth Years were enjoying the break before heading to Seventh Year and the NEWTs.

Harry smiled as he, Ron and Hermione joined the crowd flowing into the Great Hall from History of Magic.

“It’s been a good start to the year,” he commented lightly. ‘And good to be back.’

“Yes, it has,” Hermione agreed, sliding into a vacant seat for lunch.

“Care of Magical Creatures is next,” Ron reminded them. “I hope Hagrid’s going to go easy on us for the next handful of classes. At least until after Hogsmeade, then he can torture us all he likes.”

“So, where did you go last night, Harry?” Hermione wanted to know, pouring herself some pumpkin juice. “You got in late.”

“Carlin stopped by to say hello,” he shrugged. “And Dumbledore wants me to give him some time away from the paperwork he has to get through. Says he wants me to visit every once in a while.”

“Are you?” she asked attentively, both she and Ron knowing how much it had hurt Harry to be ignored by his favored mentor and near Grandfather figure.

“I would, actually,” he nodded. “I kind of missed being able to talk to him last year.”

Paying attention to their plates, the three friends lapsed into a comfortable silence. After a while, Ron reached a finger into the front pocket of his uniform pants and brushed it over the little pebble that Harry had given him that morning.

“We need to get the tokens to Tony,” he said. “Tony wants a trusted source, didn’t he? I’d rather not ask a teacher.”

“I haven’t been able to get to the library to look for Adrienne Lewis, either,” Hermione swallowed a mouthful of soup.

“One thing at a time,” Harry shook his head at them. “Let’s deal with Tony right now, okay, Hermione?”

“Yes, of course,” she nodded. “We’ll send them off and then deal with Adrienne. Have you read anything else from her diary, Harry? Maybe we’ll be able to see what else we can do. It might help to know what House she was in, first. After that, we can go on to Year.”

“I’ll get on it as soon as I can,” he assured. Just then, Dean and Seamus Finnegan slid over to talk to Harry and Ron about the upcoming Quidditch season and team tryouts.

“Everything seems to be happening in two weeks,” Hermione noted as they headed out to Hagrid’s Hut for class. “Our first DA meeting, team tryouts for Quidditch… I understand, of course. Giving everyone time to adjust is always a good idea.”

“We’ll need to invite Tony to our first match against Ravenclaw,” Ron suggested. “If he can get away for a few hours, that is.”

“We’ll ask him when we send the tokens,” Hermione perked up at the thought of their older friend spending more time with them. Tokens infused with magic to keep from getting sick were all well and good, but having their little quartet together again was so much better.

“How, though?” Ron’s question went unanswered as they joined the Slytherins for class.

“I have an idea about that,” Harry lowly told them as Hagrid got everyone’s attention.

“Alrigh’, you lot,” Hagrid smiled widely. “Today, we’re goin’ to go over a few things from Third Year and we’ll see how well ya do. ‘Round November, we’ll start with the new stuff and I’m sure you’ll have fun with them. Oh, almost forgot,” he raised a finger. “The Headmaster wants me to incorporate some things into your new material, so we’ll be learnin’ them things together…”

All in all, it wasn’t so bad. Other than mumbling coming from Draco Malfoy’s group, everyone eagerly made sure that Hagrid had an attentive audience. Soon, classes came to an end and the students were free to roam for an hour before dinner.

Ron and Hermione followed Harry to Gryffindor Tower to drop their things off at their dorms before leaving again, stones safely put in pockets along with the radios they never went anywhere without since last year.

“Of course!” Hermione laughed as they ended up in front of the kitchens. “House elves can be trusted for this.”

The pear was tickled and the Trio smiled slightly at their enthusiastic welcome. Hermione requested only a cup of tea as Harry and Ron took advantage of the sweets on offer.

Settling in the corner, Harry took his writing set out along with his pouch of pebbles and a bit of parchment. Ron and Hermione dug out their pouches and waited for Harry to write the note. He scribbled furiously for a moment and leaned back with a smile, offering the note for inspection.

_“Dear Tony,”_ Hermione read aloud. _“These are the tokens you wanted. We hope you are doing well and not taking what Snape said to heart. We trust you and just want you to know that we are still proud to call you friend. Out of curiosity, would you be interested in visiting for Gryffindor’s first match against Ravenclaw? We would love to see you there and I’m sure that Dumbledore wouldn’t mind letting you hang around. Please send your answer as soon as possible.”_

“Sounds good,” Ron borrowed the quill to sign his name under Harry’s.

“It’s fine,” Hermione agreed, adding her own name last. “Now, who are we going to send?”

There were only a handful of real choices, but Dobby was too enthusiastic…

“Winky’s looking like she’s doing better,” Ron suggested. She was, but her progress was slow. On the other hand, maybe giving her something to do would be a big step forward.

“Winky,” Hermione called. “May we see you for a moment?”

“Yes, ma’am, Hermione Granger,” she immediately scurried over. “How may Winky help Mr. Harry Potter and friends?”

“We need you to take something to a friend of ours in America. Can you do that?” Harry studied her. “His name is Tony DiNozzo and he lives near the MNP office in Washington, DC. You would be a really big help to us if you do.”

“Winky agrees,” she nodded shyly, her floppy ears following the movement. “Winky will get to Mr. Harry Potter’s Mr. Tony right away.”

“Thank you so much,” Hermione gushed, the three handing over the pouches and note.

“Er, Winky,” Harry raised a hand before she could leave. “Wait until it’s safe to approach him and take his orders until he sends you back with a message.”

“Yes, Mr. Harry Potter, sir,” she nodded, pouches and note clutched tightly in her hands. “Mr. Harry Potter’s Mr. Tony will be Winky’s master until Winky gets back to Hogwarts.” She disappeared with a pop.

“Maybe we should’ve asked him if he’s ever seen a House Elf before,” Ron winced.

“Well, it’s simple,” Hermione shrugged. “And I’m sure his school had them.”

“I don’t know,” Harry shook his head. “Remember what he told us about checking information.”

“If I’m wrong, he can do to me what he did to Padfoot,” she told them, unconcerned. “Now that we’ve done that, we need to get ready for dinner.”

** **

The next morning, Harry woke up and felt strangely tired.

He hadn’t been so tired last night, but he shook it off and didn’t think anything of it.

It was a battle trying to get Ron up and dressed, however, but that wasn’t outside the norm, either.

They stumbled down into the Common Room, still feeling strangely off, and found Hermione waiting for them.

“Where in Merlin’s name have you been?” she frowned at them, seemingly unaffected. “I went up there almost an hour ago.”

“Sorry,” Harry yawned. “Must not have heard you.”

“We have just enough time for some breakfast,” she sniffed, turning to lead them out with her bag over a shoulder.

“Harry,” Ron frowned at him. “Don’t you usually wake up when she comes in?”

“I was tired,” he shrugged. “It happens, you know.”

“But you didn’t stay up any later than I did,” Hermione slowed down. “We both went to sleep around eleven thirty.”

“Yeah,” Ron nodded. “I went up an hour later and you didn’t get up for anything.”

Deciding not to worry about it, the Trio entered the Great Hall and joined their fellows for breakfast.

Owl Post soon arrived and Harry waited for something from Tony, but didn’t see owl, eagle or house-elf.

“I’m sure it just takes time,” Hermione consoled as they left the Hall and headed toward Defense Against the Dark Arts. “Remember, he’s practically working two jobs and Winky may need time to get to him.”

“Don’t think something’s happened, do you?” Ron ambled along beside them.

“Ron,” Hermione scolded. “Don’t listen, Harry. I’m sure Tony’s fine.”

“Yeah,” he nodded, trying not to let himself go down that road. “Probably out on a case.” With Sirius out of contact, Tony was the only adult on the outside that Harry could trust without doubt. If something were to happen to Tony… it would kill him. And Ron and Hermione.

Possibly literally.

What with the marriage bond and all…

Harry didn’t like not being able to talk to Sirius, but he would settle for Tony. If something happened to either one – or both - , Harry had absolutely no idea what he would do and didn’t care to know.

“I’m not sure when to expect an answer,” Hermione admitted, “but if we don’t get one at the end of the week, then we’ll have to take it to the Headmaster.”

“And why would we want him to check on Tony?” Ron frowned. “Remember what we can’t talk about.”

“We can tell him that Tony had said to be on the lookout for his owl before Friday and that we had expected something on Thursday. Or maybe tell him that one of us had a horrible nightmare about him and wanted to check up on him.”

“And have the Order come down on him to hide him away?” Harry scoffed. “No way am I putting Tony at their mercy. We’d probably never see him for ages and then where would we be?”

They lapsed into silence as they entered the classroom, seeing the Hufflepuffs already getting settled. The Trio sat in the middle of the room and waited for the rest of their classmates to filter in. As soon as the last student slid into their seat, Professor Carlin made his appearance.

“Good Morning, everyone,” he looked down at them from his office. “I hope you brought enough ink and parchment to last through the semester. We’ll be going over theory that you learned in First Year for the next three classes and will be the same for Second Year, Third and Fourth. Every fourth and fifth class, we shall be going over the practical sessions. As I have heard about the unfortunate events of last year, I believe that it would benefit you to learn some of what you should have learned before we get to the nitty gritty of what I will teach after January. But I will warn you now,” he looked at every student. “Your NEWTs are next year and we will need to be in ship-shape by then. You will be quizzed on the reviewed materials before we get to the practical lessons. I expect each and every one of you to do well in this class. If this is not your strongest subject, find someone to study with. As I have said to some of us here, friends will be very beneficial to you this year.”

The class went by quietly except for the quills scratching against parchment as the students copied the notes on the board while Carlin expounded on what Professor Quirrell had taught them.

“It’s actually very refreshing,” Hermione sighed as they headed to their History of Magic class. “Going over what we may or may not have learned for the past five years… it brings back memories.”

“What kind of memories for you?” Ron wanted to know.

“Good ones,” she retorted.

“At least we know more about what’s going on now than we did then,” Harry pointed out as they travelled. “And the Stone has been destroyed so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“Once in a lifetime kind of adventure,” Ron reminisced with fondness. “Everything seemed so simple then.” His friends agreed.

“If you could change something from First Year,” Harry suddenly asked. “What would it be?”

“Hypothetically,” Hermione prompted, she and Harry knowing full well what had happened during the end of Third Year. “If I could go back to change something from First Year, it would have to be when I agreed to help Hannah Abbot with her History of Magic project.”

“Really?” Ron glanced at Harry, seeing his own frown. “Why?”

“Well, if I hadn’t agreed, then we would have found out about Nicholas Flamel a lot sooner.”

‘Figures,’ Harry grinned at her before turning to Ron. “What about you?”

“Let’s see,” Ron thought for a minute. “First Year, First Year… oh! I would change not telling Dumbledore about Hagrid’s dragon. And I would also change asking about Sir Nick.”

“I agree,” Harry nodded. On all counts.

The boys had a free period after History of Magic, but Hermione went to her Ancient Runes class, so the pair wandered around some.

About a half hour before lunch, Harry almost literally ran into a familiar Hufflepuff First Year.

“Hi, AJ,” he grinned widely at her. “How’s your year been so far?”

The brunette smiled slightly at him. “I think I’m going to like it here, but I don’t know about Professor Carlin.”

“Really?” Harry frowned slightly. “Is there something wrong?” Carlin honestly hadn’t sent up any alarms yet on whether he was someone to worry about or not.

“He just doesn’t feel… right. Like, there’s something wrong with him,” she lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I just don’t like him.”

“Well, it’s just the first week of classes,” Harry consoled. “I’m sure you’ll get to like him as time goes by.”

“You don’t much like him, either,” she studied him.

“No,” he shrugged. “But it’s really because I have the worst luck with Defense teachers.”

“That’s what I’ve heard, too.”

Harry walked AJ to lunch and headed off to his own table where Ron and Hermione were just piling food on their plates.

“You aren’t eating with AJ?” Ron grinned at him.

“No,” Harry smiled sheepishly. “I just remember when I was her age. It’s nice to have someone in another Year looking out for you.”

Hermione was silent for a bit before speaking, “You know, Harry, you never answered your own question. What would you change about First Year?”

Harry shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know if I would change a thing.”

“Come off it,” Ron wrapped an arm around his best mate’s neck. “You have to want to change _something_!”

“No, I really don’t. First Year is probably the only year I would leave as is.”

“Why?”

“Well… If I changed anything, we probably would have come out a lot different.”

“I think I understand,” Hermione nodded thoughtfully. “If there were something we changed and that directly impacted us today, I don’t know if I would change anything, either. Who knows what would have ended up happening?”

“We probably might not have met when we did,” Ron said slowly. “We might not have got to the Stone; He might have become immortal; we may not have found the Chamber of Secrets in time to save Ginny; we may not have found out what really happened to Harry’s parents and Sirius Black would probably be back where he was… Can’t say I wouldn’t be happy about the Tournament not happening… I wonder what would’ve happened if Harry hadn’t been hit with the torture Unforgivable last year.”

The best friends lapsed into silence as they let those words sink in. They had a new appreciation for how they began and where they ended up.

“Think we would have met Tony?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Think we would still have ended up like this?” Ron countered, waving between the three of them.

“Don’t see why not,” Harry mused. “I mean, it was an accident, right? Who’s to say that it would’ve happened regardless of knowing Tony or not? For all we know, it was our luck that managed to get Tony into it. You have to admit we _do_ have an interesting run of it. I really fail to see why it wouldn’t have happened to us. Accidents happen. And from my view, accidents happen especially where there’s magic involved. What makes Tony so special? Not his fault.”

“You’re right,” Hermione smiled easily. “It probably would’ve happened anyway. But I am glad it was Tony.”

“Yeah,” Ron agreed. “Actually, I don’t know if I want to think about what would have happened if _he_ hadn’t met _us_. On his end, mind. Right wreck, he was.”

Harry and Hermione didn’t want to think of it either.

***


	7. Chapter 7

In the end, they got Tony’s answer on Thursday.

Harry had been getting Ron up for breakfast when Winky came back looking better than ever.

“Mr. Harry Potter, sir!” she happily squeaked. “Winky has Mr. Harry Potter’s message. Master Tony told Winky that Winky is welcome to come back in two weeks. Master Tony told Winky to ask Mr. Harry Potter for any messages to take to Master Tony.”

“Great, thanks, Winky,” he smiled slightly. “Come find us whenever you get ready to leave.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Harry Potter!” she left the note as she disappeared to go back to whatever job she had when not playing messenger.

“What’s it say?” Ron blinked sleepily, struggling to get up as Harry picked up the note from where it had been left on his trunk. Moving so they could both see it, they read:

_“Dear Trio,_

_Thanks for the Tokens. I’ve got them put somewhere that only I know about._

_A house-elf, huh? Good thinking. It brings back some great school memories. I hope you don’t mind, but I let one of my school mates borrow your friend Winky. It was implied that it would be for my own good if I asked her back. By the way, do you know why she keeps calling me ‘Master’? I think that’s your doing._

_Don’t worry about me, guys. Snape hasn’t said what I haven’t heard before and believe me when I say I’ve heard worse._

_Quidditch against the Ravenclaws? Don’t get your hopes up at this point, but send me the date and I’ll see what I can do._

_Palmer says hello and wants to know if you three would be interested in trying to find him a Herbology book, but he’s trying to remember what book he wants you to look for, so I’ll get back to that next time._

_Have fun this year and do your best in class. Don’t worry about Harry’s Godfather as I’m sure he’s worrying, too, so don’t end up on the front page for blowing up a classroom. That was not a fun experience._

_Good luck and keep in touch,_

_Tony._

_PS: Harry, our friend Sally says hello.”_

“Well, at least he’s not feeling bad about Snape,” Ron pointed out, not quite sure what to make of that last statement.

“Yeah, but you really can’t tell,” Harry told him. “He says he works undercover, but I’ve always thought that you would need to be really careful about showing your true feelings to people. Don’t forget, Tony was really upset about it, but just how upset was he really? I mean, he doesn’t strike me as someone who lets people fuss over him.”

“That makes sense,” Ron leaned back on his elbows thoughtfully. “I guess that means that we need to worry about him, then?”

“Tony is the one we can actually write to,” Harry huffed. “I’m worried about Sirius even more, actually, but I can’t do anything about it.”

“Can’t talk to Lupin, either,” Ron sighed, sitting up. “Don’t know where those two are, so I reckon you’re right in thinking that it’s alright to worry about Tony.”

They got dressed and went to breakfast, telling Hermione about finally getting an answer back from Tony and letting her read it.

“Harry? Who’s Sally?” she asked.

Harry remembered the ghost he’d met when Tony had had to pick him up that summer. “She’s one of Tony’s friends. I met her when he picked me up.”

“Is she a witch?”

“Er, no. I don’t think she was.”

Ron blinked. “‘Was’?”

“She’s dead.”

“Oh.”

The day passed uneventfully, DADA spent taking notes again.

Friday rolled around and Harry huffed at his Potions book as he stuffed it into his bag on his way to breakfast.

“Good morning, Harry,” AJ called. The Hufflepuff hurried to catch up to him.

“Morning, AJ,” he smiled slightly. “How are you?”

“Can I tell you something?” she asked reluctantly.

“Of course,” he stopped suddenly to nod. “Any time you need anything. Maybe I should show you where Gryffindor Tower is.”

They ducked into an empty classroom and Harry waited for her to speak.

She took a deep breath and let it out before saying in a rush, “I sleep walk. I always have.”

“Okay,” Harry smiled slightly. He’d never actually seen anyone sleep walk, but Ron had the potential. He fondly remembered several conversations the both of them had while the redhead had been deeply asleep. And Luna Lovegood had told him that she sleep walked as well.

“You can’t tell. It’s a secret,” she insisted.

“Then why tell me?”

Grey eyes darting from one corner to the other, she bit her lip. “Don’t be mad, but some of the older years were talking about how you have a map of the school that showed names of students. Can you look out for me? Once in a while? I don’t want to be any trouble for you, though.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

“Not yet. I don’t know if I can trust any of the teachers here.”

Harry frowned. That’s not something a First Year should be saying. “Give it time.”

“And I especially don’t trust Carlin,” she admitted.

Harry didn’t really see anything wrong with their Defense professor, except that he seemed to want to get close to Ron for some reason. Ginny seemed to take to him just fine. “I don’t think Ron does, either.”

She fidgeted a minute more before sighing. “If it should come to it, will you go with me to speak with the Headmaster about sleep walking?”

“When you're ready, you know where to find me.”

As they entered the Great Hall, Harry couldn’t help feeling that she hadn’t been saying something. But what that something was about, he could only guess.

** **


	8. Chapter 8

The weekend passed with everyone getting a head start on the mountains of homework that they already had for all of their classes.

“What about the diary?” Ron asked, reaching over Harry for a Charms book.

“I haven’t had time to myself, let alone time to read it!”

Monday came and went, much the same way as Tuesday did.

After dinner that night, however, Neville approached them in the Common Room and asked them if they were accepting new members to the DA.

“I think we should,” Ron voted.

“I think we should, too,” Ginny agreed.

“Well,” Hermione dithered. “We don’t know much about this new teacher yet, so… Why don’t we ask at the meeting and take a vote?”

“Sounds good to me,” Harry shrugged.

Hermione busied herself in drawing up a possible outline for their first DA meeting as the others continued with their homework.

Thursday came upon them and the Trio found themselves in Defense class, finishing up a quiz that they were warned about.

Carlin waited until the last student was finished to clear the area for their practical lesson.

“You know, though,” Hermione whispered to Harry. “After everything, this all seems a little… I don’t know…”

“Beneath us?” Ron chuckled just as quietly.

The friends ducked their heads to hide their amusement, but it did seem like this was nothing. Of course, it hadn’t seemed like child’s play when they were learning this stuff the first time.

At dinner that night, Harry noticed the clouds gathering when he glanced at the enchanted ceiling.

He remembered Tony’s ability to predict weather and slowly munched on his dinner as he wondered if Tony could predict the weather from America. He had originally planned to start team tryouts Saturday, but…

“Harry,” Hermione looked up at the gathering clouds, too. “It doesn’t look like we’ll be outside tomorrow. Think it’ll storm through the weekend, too?”

Ron was sitting across from them when he noticed Harry’s new friend, that Hufflepuff, timidly inch toward them. He pointed her out and Harry turned.

“Hi, AJ,” he grinned. “How’s your year been so far?”

“Alright,” she lifted a shoulder, studying the Trio. “Can I sit with you?”

“Of course,” Hermione made some room for her. It wasn’t forbidden to sit with friends of other houses.

Once she settled between Harry and Hermione, AJ looked down the table at both ends.

“House Shock, I know,” Harry grinned, having had some meals at the Ravenclaw table as a result of various projects over the years.

She looked up and shivered slightly at the gathering clouds before returning to filling her plate.

“So, what brings you over here?” Ron wanted to know.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to sit somewhere different tonight.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Hermione smiled reassuringly.

“Just don’t make a habit of it,” Ron shrugged. “Probably wouldn’t look good if we started luring people away from their original House.”

“Yeah,” Harry deadpanned. “Just think of the _Prophet_ coverage on that. No thanks.”

But the Trio’s guest had not gone unnoticed.

Several looks were thrown their way, but no one made much of a fuss about it.

Near the end of the meal, however, Minerva McGonagall stopped in front of them.

“Good evening, Professor,” Hermione smiled slightly.

“Ms. Granger,” her sharp eyes studied the Badger next to her Lion. “It is always a pleasure to see my students mentoring those younger than them.”

As Hermione kept up the small talk, AJ suddenly jerked on Harry’s sleeve. He glanced down and was startled to find a glare aimed at him.

‘You promised,’ she mouthed, noticing Ron’s questioning look. She glanced at him, then back at Harry. ‘No teacher.’

Harry tilted his head at Ron and AJ nodded.

‘He’s okay. Best friend.’

“Ms. Johnson, was it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she turned and smiled at her. Harry blinked as the younger student pressed back into him. “Harry and his friends are legendary. I’d like to have a friendship as close as theirs. One that lasts through thick and thin. Peace and danger. Can’t let anyone come between them, especially this year. This is the year that they need to strengthen that bond, to make it hard for anyone to come between them.”

Harry and Ron looked at each other, wondering if that sounded like what they thought it sounded like.

“Why just this year?” Ron wanted to know.

AJ turned a brilliant smile on him. “Because next year is a hard year for NEWTs. You’ll need to band together to get through the hardships.”

“Wise advice, my dear,” Dumbledore agreed, walking past them. “I do think you’ve been misplaced.”

“No, sir,” she smiled. “Just making friends.”

Hermione watched the professors move on and returned to her dinner as Ron studied AJ.

“There’s something different about you,” he shook his head. “You really aren’t like the other First Years, are you?”

AJ didn’t speak again until dinner ended. She leaned down to whisper to Harry, “Be very careful about which adult you place your trust in. Not all of them deserve it.”

She was gone before he could ask what she meant by that.


	9. Chapter 9

**

The Trio awakened to a stormy Friday morning.

“Well, there goes the team tryouts we wanted to talk about,” Ron sighed as he munched his toast.

Hermione was busy working on her Charms essay as she absently put food in her mouth and Harry was still trying to wake up.

It was odd, though. He’d never used to have this problem before. He didn’t remember doing anything particularly strenuous yesterday, so there should be no reason for his lethargy.

Ron frowned slightly, before hesitantly catching his two friends’ attention. “Er, did you want something last night, Hermione? After we did our rounds?”

She shook her head. “No, why?”

“Well…” he shifted slightly. “Just that, I thought that someone was calling me. I thought it was you, cause it sounded like a girl, but I didn’t wake up all the way.”

“Maybe it was a dream,” she shrugged. “Dreams can do that, you know.”

“Maybe,” though Ron didn’t sound convinced.

They had Charms after breakfast and Transfiguration after lunch, right before Potions.

On their way to Charms, Professor Carlin caught up to them.

“Good morning, Professor,” Hermione smiled slightly.

“Ms. Granger, boys,” he nodded. “You all did very well on your quizzes yesterday.”

“Well, of course,” Hermione beamed. “We do think that Defense is one of our strongest subjects.”

“And Mr. Potter helps you along, I suspect,” he winked at the black haired Lion. “Nothing wrong with that, eh, Ron?”

“Harry helps, alright,” the redhead grinned. Harry smiled back ruefully, knowing full well that him getting them into dangerous situations was the only way they were able to master the different spells at all. But he did have a knack for Defense, if he did say so himself.

“Off to Charms, are you?” Carlin spied the books in their arms. “You know, Ron, your mum did very well in that class. She helped me study and it’s no secret that she’s the only reason I ever passed the class,” he chortled. “Should you need help, you and your friends know that my door is always open.”

“That seemed genuine enough,” Hermione commented as they entered their classroom and found seats next to each other.

“I don’t know,” Ron frowned. “Seemed kind of off to me.”

“Do you really think he’s out to get Harry?” she sighed. “I would have thought that he would have already pulled something.”

“It’s the start of the year,” Ron frowned at her. “Have to give it time. Then when Harry’s been lured into a false sense of security, Carlin unleashes his plan.”

“You’re pessimistic.”

“I know how this works. Can’t be friends with this one without knowing how it works, after all this time.”

The day continued to be a stormy one, even as Potions began.

Harry winced as the distant rumble of thunder echoed throughout the dungeons. The cracks of lightning could also be heard, but a little more faintly.

“Careful, Neville,” he murmured to his partner. He winced again as thunder echoed around the room. “Here, best let me.”

“Thanks, Harry,” he gratefully handed the ingredient over to the equally grateful celebrity. Neville didn’t do well in Potions on a good day. Neville in Potions on a day like this was just asking for trouble.

As much as Harry doubted his own steady hand, he really didn’t want to end up on the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ for blowing up the class. Tony may have joked about it, but Harry couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t as much of a joke as they were led to believe.

He wondered about that as his and Neville’s potion turned the correct color and consistency that it was supposed to. Would Tony want to explain that or was it too embarrassing or painful to talk about? Tony may seem like things didn’t bother him, like Mrs. Weasley seeming to ignore him at times, but Harry had learned to see otherwise.

He thought that Ron was starting to learn, too, but Harry wasn’t at all sure about his best friend’s emotional range. He could just be reading into things, but that’s what it seemed like at times.

“Thanks for helping me with this,” Neville smiled warmly, ladling the first vial full. They would need to add more ingredients and take samples along the way.

“No problem,” Harry smiled back. Looking down, he noted the cloth that one of them dropped at the start of class and ducked down to get it. He really wasn’t aware of anything happening until he heard Neville drop the ladle back into the cauldron and a few gasps, along with an odd thunk from somewhere behind him. “Easy, Neville,” he climbed back up, cloth in hand. “We don’t want to get in trouble for…” he trailed off as he registered the horrified look on his friend’s face. “What?” Then he realized that the class was staring at him with that same horrified look.

Swallowing thickly, he suddenly remembered that odd thunk and had a bad feeling. In spite of that, however, he slowly turned to look behind him and found a knife buried to the hilt in the space where his head had been seconds earlier.

** **


	10. Chapter 10

“And you’re absolutely sure you’re alright?” Hermione demanded to know an hour later.

As a precaution, they were in the Hospital Wing and Hermione had been particularly insistent after having learned not to take his ‘I’m fine’ at face value.

“Yes, Hermione,” Harry sighed. “It didn’t hit me. You were there. I told you and Neville and Ron and Snape and…"

“Yeah,” Ron agreed, rolling his eyes. “Harry’s luck strikes again. Good thing you ducked when you did.”

“I saw it come from Parvati’s direction,” Hermione said, calming down as they left the hospital to return to their Common Room. Dinner would be starting soon.

“I didn’t see it at all,” Ron commented, “but Seamus did.” The Irishman had been facing Harry and Neville while Ron had his back to them.

“I might just end up on the front page, anyway,” Harry told them glumly.

“Tony was joking about that,” Hermione waved his concern away, glancing out a window at the worsening conditions as they passed.

“How do you know?” Ron challenged, as they rounded the corner. The portrait hole opened just as they approached and McGonagall stepped out.

“Potter,” she nodded slightly. “I’ve been looking for you. The Headmaster would like a word.”

Exchanging looks with Ron and Hermione, he left his things with them and followed his Head of House to the Headmaster’s office. Password said (“Double dipped chocolate chip.”), the pair found themselves in front of the office door.

“Headmaster,” she knocked. “I have Potter, as you requested.”

The door opened and Dumbledore stood in front of them.

“Thank you, Minerva. I shall take it from here.”

Once she left, Dumbledore let Harry in to take a seat in front of his desk.

As the older wizard went to settle back behind his desk, Harry took a few minutes to scan the office and catalog anything that seemed recently added.

“Good evening, my boy,” Dumbledore smiled slightly as green eyes travelled back to him. “I hear there was some excitement today.”

“Yes, sir,” he smiled sheepishly in return. “I swear I’m fine. Hermione made extra sure of that.”

“As to be expected,” he nodded. “Ms. Granger and Mr. Weasley do care for your well-being. They are your closest friends, after all.”

Harry nodded slightly before getting to the point. “Sir? May I ask exactly what happened?”

Dumbledore nodded, selecting a lemon drop and offering it to him. “We have determined that it was accidental,” he began. “As it happens, Professor Flitwick had been teaching review to his Second Years and one of them must have accidently hit someone’s bag with a spell. The knife belongs to one of them and was in the bag that had been hit. One of your classmates must have borrowed it for class. I hope you do not hold against anyone what was clearly an accident.”

Harry let that sink in. “But how sure are you of this accident, sir?”

He chuckled, “I see our friend is rubbing off on you. Always double checking.”

“It’s part of his job,” he shrugged.

“And he does it well. Always a lesson to keep in mind, never taking anything at face value.” Dumbledore selected a lemon drop for himself. “I was, however, disappointed that he turned down my offer of the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.”

“Really?” Harry’s eyes went wide. “Why in Merlin’s name didn’t he take it, then?”

“I’m afraid that the late Director Shepard had too much of an invested interest in him to allow him the year off,” Dumbledore’s blue eyes darkened.

As much as Harry was angered at the reminder of what Tony had been through, he sighed, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Not to worry,” he tapped the side of his nose with a wink. “I shall get him to take the job here if it is the last thing I ever manage to accomplish.”

“I hope not. I mean, I would love to have Tony teach, but not if it was the last thing you ever did.”

“Should it come down to it, I would have no regrets,” he assured. “I do not, however, anticipate that particular grand adventure for quite a few many years to come.”

When Harry got down to dinner some time later, he found the storm outside doing little to stifle the whispers making the rounds among the students. He dropped into the seat next to Hermione, knowing the latest attempt on his life was spreading like wildfire.

“What did the Headmaster want?” she wanted to know. Ron slowed down his eating to listen.

“Just making sure I was alright,” he lifted a shoulder, going back to the part about Tony’s being offered the Defense position. He wondered what would have happened if Tony had been their teacher last year.

“Are you okay, Harry?” Lavender Brown questioned. “Ron and Hermione were ordered to get you out really quick.”

“Fine,” he shrugged. “Apparently, it was a freak accident.”

“Some freak accident,” Hermione huffed.

“Yeah,” Neville swallowed thickly at the memory. “You were almost a goner, mate.”

“I know,” Harry sighed. “What was the homework?”

Hermione promised to tell him later, insisting that he eat. He wondered if she thought he was in shock.

Especially when she kept dumping as much chocolate as she could on his plate at dessert.

He was plowing through one of his favorites when AJ slipped onto the bench next to him.

“Close call, I heard,” she remarked.

“You aren’t doing it, are you?” Ron suddenly narrowed his eyes at her.

“Ron, I know we all have a reason for being paranoid,” Hermione chastised, “but try not to let it run away with you.”

“No,” AJ simply shook her head. “Not me. But, you know, if I wanted to, it would be someone else.”

“Snape?” Ron shared a grin with Harry.

“Not quite,” she muttered, standing. “I don’t dislike him quite enough, yet.”

“Give it time,” Ron advised.

**

The storm seemed to have gotten worse the next day.

No one was allowed out for anything, even the teachers were stuck inside. That alone meant that this storm could actually have the potential to kill you.

Apparently, as Hermione had found out through gossip, the Floo system linking to the school was out, too. Owls were only allowed out if they could handle the strong winds.

“It may be the electrical build-up in the air,” Hermione mused during lunch in the Great Hall, glancing up at the enchanted sky. “I read once that naturally built-up electricity can interfere with magic in the oddest of ways.”

One of the Hufflepuff DA members then stopped next to them. “Hello, Harry,” she smiled shyly.

“Hey, Corrine,” he nodded back. “Can I help you with something?”

“Uhm,” she glanced at her fellows, then at the sky. “Is it possible to push the meeting back? I know we won’t be doing all that much, but I think a lot of us would feel safer if we didn’t meet today.”

“You may have a point,” Hermione nodded thoughtfully.

“Why?” Ron wanted to know from across the table. “So we won’t jump right in, then.”

“No, Ronald,” she frowned. “I mean that the Room of Requirement is itself magic. It uses part of the magic surrounding the school to help whoever needs it at that point in time.”

“It does sound risky,” Ginny Weasley commented, dropping down into the seat next to her. “Everyone I’ve talked to wants to push the meeting back, as well.”

Unable to fault their logic, Harry shrugged. “Let’s set it for the weekend before Hogsmeade. That way, we can hold the team tryouts and get some practice out of the way for those who might be active in both areas. Will that be alright? We have spells that we can vote on at the meeting.”

“Tell everyone to start thinking what they want to practice,” Hermione advised. “We’ll hold the vote at the meeting, like Harry said.”

“Alright,” Corrine nodded eagerly. She immediately started spreading the news.

“By the way, Hermione,” Ron smirked. “Ever find your ‘misplaced’ item?”

Before she could respond, AJ stopped before them. “Not a good day to go out.”

“No,” Ginny shrugged. “I have to start on a project anyway, so I don’t mind.” Apparently, her class was doing a Year-wide project that would only work with three partners per group.

“Good luck with that,” Ron winced, knowing her partners were a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin.

“Thanks, Ron,” Ginny nodded in understanding.

“I think I’ll go to the library,” AJ mused, wandering off and reminding Harry of Luna Lovegood.

“Good afternoon, all,” Harry flinched as he turned to see Carlin beaming at them. “I hope you know better than to go out.”

“Yes, Professor,” Hermione nodded. “Homework today.”

“She means it,” Ron grumbled.

“Now, Ron, she’s only being your friend,” Carlin tsked. “That’s no way to treat them.”

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Harry broke in.

“See that you do,” he nodded. “Until next time, friends.”

“Why is he so insistent on talking about friends,” Ginny frowned after him. “And why is Ron the only one he calls by his first name? He calls me ‘Ms. Weasley’.”

“He’s trying too hard to be friends with us,” Ron told her. “Harry knows better than to trust him.”

Later, with nothing else to do, the Trio found themselves in the Sixth Year Boys’ Dormitories. Hermione sat cross-legged on Harry’s bed as Ron plopped down onto his own.

“Harry, do you have Adrienne’s diary?” Hermione asked. “I’ve been so busy that I forgot about it.”

“Yeah,” he rifled through his trunk and brought it out. He gave it to her and watched her wave her wand over it. “Well?”

“It’s safe,” she relaxed. “As far as I can tell, nothing’s been done to it.”

“That’s a relief,” Ron sighed. “At least we know that nothing bad will happen to us if we read it. We are still reading it, aren’t we?”

“If we want to find clues as to who Adrienne is and where we can find her to give this back,” she brandished it at him. “And we will,” she added. Flipping the cover open, she licked her lips before reading the first entry aloud.

“I already read that one,” Harry told her.

“The second one, then.”

_‘It’s the first day of September! School starts soon and I can’t wait._

_One of the girls from my neighborhood says that I should be so lucky to get into a school like it. Only the really good girls get to do. Sandra isn’t a good girl because she likes picking on me and calling me names._

_My cousin says to ignore her because she wasn’t as pretty as me. Daniel agrees, but it’s really hard to believe them because I think they’re supposed to say those things. I don’t mind it, though, because I like hearing it.’_

_‘September Third, a boring day, indeed._

_But I like it. Nothing happened and it was boring. But I did get a letter from Daniel, my penpal. He’s having such fun in America. He wanted to know where we could meet when I’ve held up my end of the bargain. As much as I like to visit America, I would really like to show him London.’_

The next handful of entries were more or less the same.

“I wonder why she’s not talking about magic,” Ron frowned.

“Because she must be Muggleborn,” Hermione pointed out. “I think she’s afraid that someone might find her diary and wonder about it. I think that very clever of her. Maybe she’s Ravenclaw?”

Harry sat back against the wall with a frown as he listened to them. It really did sound like a plausible explanation, but he had the worst feeling that he was missing something.

Something really obvious.

Something he would be kicking himself for later, he knew.

But what was it?

**


	11. Chapter 11

The storm finally blew itself out Wednesday, giving everyone a chance to breathe.

Thursday morning, Hermione received all the mail that couldn’t be delivered during the storm. To their disappointment, however, there was nothing from Tony.

Sunday, Quidditch finally came to pass, with Ron succeeding at getting the Keeper position, much to everyone’s delight, amazement and shock. Ron, of course, being one of the last.

Winky went back to America and came back with a note of congratulations and a package of Chocolate Frogs from Tony.

Practice took place Wednesday evening, about two hours before sundown.

“Hi, AJ,” Harry spotted the Hufflepuff hanging around the Pitch. “Haven’t heard from you lately. Everything going alright?”

The First Year nodded. “You can tell Ron, you know. About me sleepwalking.”

“Maybe you should be the one to tell him,” Harry smiled slightly. “How’s everything with Carlin?”

“I don’t like him,” AJ shook her head. “He tries too hard to be friends with you.”

“That may be true, but that’s no reason to dislike him.”

“I never said that was the reason I don’t like him. I don’t think he likes me, either. He doesn’t call on me in class and acts like I’m not his equal or something.”

Harry frowned slightly. “Is it just you?"

“Yeah. I don’t know what to make of it.”

They chatted for a few more minutes before Harry went to join the rest of his team.

Ginny was with Katie Bell and Rosslyn Langdon, a promising Third Year, to talk Chaser.

Ron met up with the Beaters Vince Muldoon and Ben Dunne. Harry was still the best Seeker - not like he had much competition – so he gathered the others to think about strategy.

Hermione had settled in on the bleachers, as she always did and divided her attention between them and the book she had with her.

Everything was going fine until halfway through.

They were all in the air, all the balls were out and Harry was putting them through their paces. He was keeping an absent eye out for the Snitch when Ben suddenly dove left.

“Ben!” Katie called. “That’s not what we – look out!”

Harry looked around just in time to dodge a Bludger racing past. “What in Merlin – Vince! Behind you!”

Down in the stands, Hermione took a few minutes to realize that something was wrong with the two Bludgers that kept going after the Beaters. But it wasn’t just them.

After Vince went into a dive, he reached out and whacked the other one away from Rosslyn. To their disbelief, it went after her again.

Ben was racing after the other one chasing Ginny and had to do a roll in midair to change direction as it decided to go after Ron.

“Some help here!” Vince called out, whacking the other one again. He cursed as it started heading for Harry.

Hermione couldn’t get a fix on either of the Bludgers because they were going too fast and she didn’t want to hit one of the players by mistake. If she hadn’t been so afraid of heights and opposed to flying, she’d hop on a broomstick and join the fray in a heartbeat. She was contemplating running for help or something when she heard a shout coming from one of the other spectators.

She was trying to figure out what was going on when, to her horror, two more Bludgers suddenly joined the original two. And one of them was heading in her direction.

Everyone was too pre-occupied to see it and Hermione was trying to figure out where to run – because it was very hard to outrun a Bludger, which was why they had Beaters! – when Harry suddenly landed next to her.

“Get on,” he ordered in a tone that said ‘don’t argue with me or I’ll knock you out and haul you on if I have to’ and she launched onto the Firebolt behind him. They kicked off and into the air not a moment too soon as the Bludger hit a few seconds later where she’d just been standing.

Vince was torn between Ron and Ginny as Ben whacked away one of the four from Katie and Rosslyn. The four were really not sure what was going on as Vince and Ben took out one Bludger after another as Harry flew him and Hermione above them, trying to keep the fourth from unseating them.

Elizabeth Mason from the Ravenclaw team suddenly appeared to whack their Bludger off course with her Beater’s bat. Her teammate, Cecil Grey, teamed up with Vince and Ben to keep the other Bludgers busy.

“How’s it going, Potter?” Eliza flew alongside them. “Alright?”

“What’s going on?!”

“Don’t know. We aren’t sure where the other two came from, either.”

“How did you get here so fast?” Hermione yelled over the wind.

“That First Year Hufflepuff, Johnson, I think.”

Harry didn’t care what anyone would think, but when his life wasn’t in imminent danger, he was going to track her down and kiss her. Possibly on the mouth.

“What are we going to do?” Hermione shook her head, looking around. Ben, Vince, Cecil, Rosslyn, Katie, Ginny and Ron were flying around, dodging Bludgers when she suddenly saw an opening. “Eliza, move,” she ordered, pulling her wand out. Harry slowed down enough so that Hermione got off a shot at the incoming Bludger, sighing as it exploded.

“Uh-oh,” Eliza gasped as two more Bludgers joined the fray.

“You’re kidding!” Harry and Eliza both pulled into dives to avoid them.

“When you destroy one, two more take its place!” Hermione groaned. “I made it worse!”

“You didn’t know,” Eliza shot off a grin before helping the others.

“That was a good idea, though,” Harry consoled. “But what now?”

The entire group spent the better part of an hour dodging the rogue Bludgers in the fading light, sending Harry into flashbacks of Second Year.

If it was Dobby again…

The teachers finally arrived to take the situation into their own hands. They shot off nets at the Bludgers, anchoring them to the ground by way of a powerful sticking charm. A half hour later, the rogues had been contained and everyone shakily collapsed on the soft grass.

“Is everyone alright?” Flitwick squeaked, making sure his Ravens were alright as McGonagall checked her Lions.

“Yes, Professor,” Ben puffed.

“Thanks to AJ,” Eliza pointed at the approaching spectators, a sole Hufflepuff among them.

When she was close enough, Harry used what energy he had left to charge the Badger, dropping a kiss on her cheek. “You saved our lives,” he squished her to him. “I think I owe you a life debt.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she pushed him away, face red. “Really.”

“Thanks, AJ,” Ginny hugged her. “I take back everything I said about Hufflepuff this year.”

“Twenty five points to Hufflepuff,” McGonagall smiled at the applause.

“We’re very proud of you for alerting others,” Sprout puffed up with pride at her Badger.

“Anyone could have done it,” AJ modestly pushed her glasses back up her nose.

“But you did,” McGonagall told her. “And that makes all the difference in the world.”

**

By the time the DA met for their first meeting of the year, the incident had spread all over school.

All of the Quidditch equipment was locked away for investigation and the Pitch was empty for repairs.

AJ was a practical celebrity, herself, though she couldn’t wait for it blow over. She later told Harry that she didn’t know how he could stand it, being so famous all the time.

He didn’t know, either.

“There is just no possible way,” Hermione frowned as she, Harry and Ron made their way to the meeting, “that what happened could _possibly_ be an accident. Someone was deliberately trying to hurt someone and I won’t believe it otherwise!”

“But who was the target?” Harry wanted to know. “I mean, the Bludgers didn’t just go after one person.”

“It was a Gryffindor,” Ron pointed out. “We were the only House in the air.”

“So where did the extras come from?” Hermione shrugged. “All the possible candidates had been locked up at the time.”

“That doesn’t mean that Harry wasn’t the target,” Ron told them.

Harry shook his head, but straightened as he saw Carlin rushing down the hall toward them. “Hello, Professor.”

He blinked at them before shaking his head to clear it. “Hello, friends,” his smile was strained. “Are all of you alright? I heard what happened.”

“We’re fine,” Hermione said, trying not to let her tone be insulting. Not like Carlin noticed, at any rate. He seemed to be preoccupied with something.

“Well, I hate to cut this conversation short, but I am running a little behind on a lunch engagement,” he promised to catch up with them later and continued on his way.

“He did it,” Ron deadpanned.

“As much as I’m inclined to agree with you,” Hermione got them going again, “we don’t have nearly enough facts to make a definite conclusion.”

“How about you, mate?” Ron turned to Harry. “Death Eater?”

Harry was at a loss to explain. As much as he suspected Carlin to be one, he wasn’t getting anything from his scar. But if Carlin did try to kill him, wouldn’t he be feeling something? Carlin had to be a Death Eater, why else would he want to try to kill Harry?

But Hermione was right. They didn’t have enough to go on besides the two incidents.

Deciding to think about it later, Harry straightened as they came upon the Room of Requirement.

“But at least we know we made a good choice for Beaters,” Ron smiled weakly.

“That’s true,” Hermione smiled slightly.

They entered the room and found a sizable crowd there already. After some general things, the vote to take new members was decided to take place over a two week period to give everyone a chance to think about it. Hermione would be counting the votes and she pulled out the list of spells she’d made on the train.

“For today, let’s just go over a few general spells,” she suggested. “We’ll take a vote on specific ones next time.”

They went over some of the more general spells on the list before breaking for dinner.

“I can’t wait for Hogsmeade,” Ron smiled dreamily. “I’m going straight to Honeyduke’s.”

“Me, too,” Harry nodded. “I think we need to start thinking about what to get Tony for Christmas this year.”

“The cloak will be really hard to top,” Hermione mused. “And we got him his knife the Christmas before that.”

“We can get him a jumper,” Ron suggested. “I’ll just get him sweets like I do for Harry. He’s already said that he wants more Chocolate Frog cards.”

**


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hi.
> 
> I just wanted to let you know that this story is probably the hardest one of the series to write and I'm pretty sure that a majority of you can understand this. I have plotlines to untangle and groundwork for the rest of the series to think about and a lot of this will make sense when we finally get to the Trio's last year.
> 
> That one, I'm sorry to say, is not going to be a happy one. Much. Don't worry, none of our beloved characters are dying anytime soon, but there is a plotline that takes precedence over a majority of the 'Summer Contacts' series and it's already begun in this installment. 
> 
> As for the rest of the series, it's going to be a mega-crossover series with a lot of my favorite shows and you might not have seen a few of them, but that's okay. 
> 
> There are going to be backstories that I'm going to be posting very soon about these shows and they will also be affected by this ongoing plotline. 
> 
> But the process will be slow and long because I need to get these characters meeting Tony and the Trio and then I'll get the multiple fandom crossover stories to bring even more excitement and then I've got all these plot twists to consider - including one or two that involve NCIS Los Angeles -, plus more people are going to be finding out about the marriage bond (if you aren't already acquainted with Steve Jinx, you have plenty of time).
> 
> Now, as for the rest of the crossover shows, I will tell you that Covert Affairs will be getting involved as well as Necessary Roughness. And for those of you wondering, Sherlock will be returning. 
> 
> There is, however, a crossover that won't be introduced in the 'traditional' way. It ties in with this plotline that I mentioned earlier, but it won't be fully clear until later on. 
> 
> This plotline is not a happy one and it really might upset a number of you, but it wasn't meant to be a plotline for more than one story when I started this series. It's evolved and brought a lot of opportunities with it. Unfortunately, the very nature won't be easy for me to flesh out because of what it's going to entail. Plus, it's probably going to freak me out long after the series has ended.
> 
> So, keeping in mind that everyone's future adventures are waiting to be told, enjoy the story.
> 
> PS: I'm really looking forward to the Warehouse 13 season premiere and that will hopefully kick the muse in gear for the crossovers.

Monday dawned bright and early.

Harry was heading down to breakfast when he ran into AJ. “Good morning,” he smiled warmly.

“Morning,” she adjusted her bag. They walked along for a minute before she sighed. “Did I do something wrong?”

“What do you mean?” he frowned.

“Professor Carlin doesn’t like me,” she told him. “Yesterday, he took points because me and Summer were sharing a stool in the library.”

“But that’s not against the rules,” he frowned thoughtfully.

“I know. Professor Sprout said the same thing. He seemed like he was in a bad mood, too.”

“I’m sure that’s all it was,” Harry consoled.

“But he didn’t really like me before. Now I know he doesn’t like me. But what did I do?”

“I’m pretty sure you didn’t do anything. Give it some time. I’m sure he’ll come around,” even if Harry himself didn’t really like him. He wasn’t sure why Carlin wouldn’t like AJ. She was a sweetheart, even if she was a little odd. But even Snape seemed to dislike her because of her House, not because of her personally.

“Yeah, maybe.”

They went to their separate tables and Harry was quickly drawn into a conversation about the next Quidditch World Cup.

“You don’t think it’ll be anything like the last one, do you?” Neville questioned.

“I don’t know,” Harry frowned thoughtfully. “Two years from now, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, in Australia,” a Gryffindor Second Year filled in.

Harry wasn’t sure he would want to go. But, he reasoned, if Tony were there, he would consider it. From what he understood, the Death Eaters attacked long after Tony had left.

The day passed slowly in the way that Mondays did and then it was Tuesday.

“So far, so good,” Ron commented as they relaxed in the Great Hall. “No attempt on Harry’s life since last week.”

“You know,” Hermione scowled at them. “It’s not very funny.”

“It passes the time,” Ron shrugged. Harry didn’t mind at all. Actually, he wondered what it said about them that the various attempts on his life were quickly becoming an inside joke.

Looking around, Harry noted the increased noise. “Wonder what’s going on.”

AJ slid into a seat across from them, Ginny on her other side.

“Did you hear what happened?” Ginny leaned forward. “One of the Slytherins was almost crushed by a bookcase.”

“When did this happen?” Hermione leaned toward her.

“This morning,” AJ answered. “The Slytherin’s name is Ezekiel Carmen, I have him in some of my classes. I was actually going to meet him in the library when I heard about what happened. We have a History project and we were teamed up.”

“And did you hear what happened to the Ravenclaw Third Year in one of the Greenhouses?” Ginny added. “Someone thought it funny to put a Devil’s Snare in one of the pots.”

“Which Ravenclaw?” Harry frowned.

“The one always losing something, Mary, I think.”

“I lent her one of my quills,” Hermione remembered. She bit her lip as she looked at the boys.

“The staff is on the warpath,” Ginny smiled wickedly. “Whoever is messing with them better hope they aren’t found.” Being the sister of Fred and George Weasley, Ginny was always for a little chaos.

“But Devil’s Snare is dangerous,” Hermione shook her head.

“Only if you don’t know how to repel them,” Harry reminded, thinking of their First Year.

After AJ left for her own table, Ginny frowned at them. “What? You don’t think these are all related, do you?” she noted their looks. “To the Potions knife or the rogue Bludgers?”

“They aren’t at all looking like accidents,” Hermione huffed.

“But that’s what the teachers are saying,” she told her.

“Only so that they don’t cause panic,” Harry shook his head.

“But I thought it was only Harry that was in trouble,” Ron frowned.

“I told you,” Hermione sighed. “We don’t have enough information to say if Professor Carlin is doing this or not. Remember what Tony’s always saying about getting information.”

“And what if Harry really is the target?” Ron wanted to know. “What about the others?”

As much as they hated to play the waiting game, it really was all they could do.

But Hermione’s remark about having let the poor Ravenclaw borrow her quill stuck with Harry all that week.

Presuming that it wasn’t Carlin – for the sake of the argument - , did whoever want Harry killed decide to start going after his friends? Or was it really just as accidental as the teachers were claiming?

**


	13. Chapter 13

Hogsmeade waited for no witch, or wizard.

Ron dragged Harry out of bed and they dressed quickly before heading down to the Common Room.

“Where’s Hermione?” Ron scowled. “She said she’d be up by now.”

“She usually is,” Harry yawned, feeling that strange energy drain again. “Ron, do feel like you’ve been doing complicated charms in your sleep or something?”

That stopped his friend from pacing. “Now that you mention it,” he tilted his head. “I’ve felt it a few times since the year started. Reckon it’s the bond?” he pitched his voice low.

“No,” he shook his head, hand reaching down to touch the stone in his pocket. The Trio had been shuffling the pebble around between them, but Harry sometimes felt tired regardless. “I don’t think it is.”

“Not all of them are the same, remember.”

“I know.”

They finally had to send one of the Fourth Years up to get Hermione, who stumbled down almost twenty minutes later.

“I’m sorry,” she yawned widely. “I don’t know why I’m so tired.”

“Well, hurry up,” Ron herded them out. “Who knows what we’re missing.”

Within minutes, they were set on the trail to Hogsmeade.

“So, Harry,” Hermione woke up a little more. “I was looking into Adrienne’s diary and I haven’t been able to find any mention of magic yet. She _must_ be in Ravenclaw.”

“But why doesn’t she write with a quill or something?” Ron frowned. Harry and Hermione had explained about Muggle writing instruments. Ron was kind of fascinated.

“So no one asks questions,” Hermione answered. “What better way to keep a secret from Muggles than using Muggle things?”

It was ingenious, Harry had to admit. Shame they hadn’t managed to get the chance to ask a teacher if they’d heard of Adrienne Lewis. With his luck, they would get nosy and try to take it from him. And, childish as it sounded, he wanted to be the one to figure it out.

Besides, something just didn’t sit right when he thought about the diary being taken away.

They hit Honeyduke’s first before heading over to Zonko’s Joke Shop. Ron was proud to see some of his brothers’ jokes in stock and made a note to tell the twins in the near future.

They had lunch with some friends at the Three Broomsticks before going over to Dervish and Bang’s to get some things that they were running low on.

Harry had been relieved to know that no more ‘accidents’ had happened since Tuesday and was still on guard in case he really was the next target.

It was going past three in the afternoon when the Trio found themselves at the Shrieking Shack. Looking at it from behind the fence, Harry remembered all that had happened there that night in Third Year and felt a pang of missing Sirius even more fiercely than before.

“He’s alright, Harry,” Hermione twined their arms together. “Kingsley knows what he’s doing.”

“Yeah,” Ron agreed, pressing in on him from the other side. “A lot has changed since then.”

The friends stayed there for a while, reflecting on the years that had passed since then.

“I miss him,” Harry spoke into the contemplative silence. “Well, I miss Tony, too, but I miss Sirius.”

“Tony isn’t going to feel left out because you miss your Godfather more than your husband,” Ron told him.

“His older husband, you mean,” Hermione chuckled. “And ours, too.”

“You’re right,” Harry nodded. Tony knew that Sirius was important to him, though maybe not the way Tony was. They kind of needed each other to stay healthy. “It’s just…”

“We’re so used to Sirius being around,” Hermione quirked a smile. “I had almost turned to go to the cave before I remembered that he wasn’t here.”

“What are we waiting here for, then?” Ron suddenly grinned. “Let’s go up there now, for old time’s sake.”

“I’d feel better,” Harry confessed, knowing it to be true and that he would feel a little closer to his Godfather there.

“Alright,” Hermione relented. “Let’s make it quick, though. I have to get started on my Ancient Runes essay.”

The boys were still teasing her about it on their way to the cave they had visited many a time in the past. In fact, it had only been pure luck that Harry was walking backward.

As he was turning to face forward, he lazily looked around before something caught his eye.

“Hold on,” he frowned, holding a hand out for them to stop. “What’s that?”

“What?” Ron frowned, he and Hermione following his gaze. “I don’t know.”

“C’mon,” Harry took his want out and headed for the black mass lying just inside the tree line.

“Harry, don’t,” Hermione called. “It could be dangerous.”

“Yeah,” Ron got his own wand out. “So, wait for us to come with you.” Hermione was left on the path and she rolled her eyes in resignation as she also got out her wand and followed.

“We shouldn’t just be doing this,” she scolded.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Ron grinned over his shoulder at her. “You’re a Gryffindor, too, you know.”

Harry ignored them as he slowly approached. As he got closer, he found the mass that had caught his eye was a little smaller than he first thought. And black, he confirmed as he led his friends closer. The small black mass laid on the ground in front of them as Harry pulled up to a safe distance away to be heard, but still far enough away to run if need be.

“Hello?” he called out, aware of his friends coming up on either side of him. “Are you alright?” Sharp green eyes saw a little movement, confirming his suspicions that they were faced with something or someone. Since it was curled up, he couldn’t be sure how big it actually was.

“Do you need some help?” Hermione called next. “We’re from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You can trust us to help.”

“We may not be teachers,” Ron added. “I mean, we’re three sixteen year old wizards and witch, but we can get you to one if you like.”

The black mass made another movement before who or whatever they were facing uncurled from its ball to reveal itself to be a dog.

A skinny dog.

A black, skinny dog.

A big, black skinny dog.

One that looked exactly like –

_“Sirius_?!” Harry’s heart suddenly ended up in his throat as he threw all caution to the wind and raced over, dropping to his knees before the half conscious Grim-like dog.

“Padfoot,” Hermione breathed as she dropped on the ground next to them, Ron standing over the three in the position of look-out just in case danger still lurked.

Their friend whined at them, opening familiar grey eyes as he stared at them pitifully. Harry saw something like relief cross his Godfather’s face as the dog registered who they were and relaxed.

“It’s going to be alright, Sirius,” Harry carefully hugged his neck.

“Harry, he’s hurt,” Hermione touched as lightly as she could, wincing as he jerked when her fingers moved over certain areas. “We need to get him to school, right now.”

“A-alright,” he nodded, his heart constricting at the complaining whine as he pulled away. “How do we get him back to Hogwarts?”

“And this from the son of a Marauder,” Ron shook his head mock sorrowfully, “and the Godson of another. How else?”

It took some doing, but once Harry Summoned his Invisibility Cloak, it was easy. Hermione Disillusioned them after putting a lightening charm on the injured Animagus. They entered Honeyduke’s and waited for the right moment to sneak into the back room, Hermione acting like she was waiting for someone since she was the only one able to be seen. Soon, they were in the secret tunnel running from the shop to Hogwarts.

“It’s alright,” Hermione crooned in response to the pained whines that emitted, even though Harry and Ron took every care to be as gentle as they could. It was just killing Harry, who never wanted to hurt his Godfather for anything.

“C’mon, mate,” Ron quietly urged. “The sooner we get there, the sooner Sirius will stop being in pain.”

“Yeah, Harry,” Hermione sniffled, tears running down her face, her own heart breaking for the illegal Animagus in the arms of his Godson and his best friend. Her wand light illuminated the path and soon they came to the exit. From there, all they had to do was make sure no one saw them – which was easy considering, you know, Hogsmeade – on their way to the Hospital Wing.

“Madam Pomfrey!” Ron called, Hermione reversing the spell on him and Harry as they whipped the Cloak off of their charge and carefully laid him on a bed.

“Is that who I think it is?” the nurse bustled in, eyes going wide, being careful not to give his identity away.

“He’s hurt really badly,” Hermione told her, making room for the older witch to start diagnosing with the arsenal of spells at her disposal.

Minutes later, Dumbledore appeared after Pomfrey fire-called him. “What’s happened?” he demanded to know.

The Trio wasted no time in telling him what they knew, all watching the scene before them.

“We think he was beaten,” Hermione said quietly, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on Harry’s arm.

“He was,” Poppy confirmed grimly. “A sprained wrist and at least one broken or cracked rib with another one severely bruised, poor thing. You’ve been put through the ringer, haven’t you?” she gently stroked his head. Returning her attention to the others, she shook her head. “His magic has been bound. He can’t change back,” she reported. “We’ll have to treat him like this. I need to send for a specialist from London. She can help and she need not know that this is not a real animal.”

Albus nodded, blue eyes worried as he scanned the shivering dog in front of him. Harry moved onto the bed, wrapping the Animagus in his arms and feeling gratified when Sirius curled into him, even going so far as to give his tail a weak wag.

“Professor,” Hermione looked away from the touching scene. “Is there any way at all to know what happened?”

“I’m afraid not,” he shook his head. “Only Kingsley knows his exact location.”

“Then find out,” Ron suggested.

“I would very much like to, Mr. Weasley. However, it was agreed that no one would know anything about anyone’s location until the mission has been completed because we do not want anyone knowing we have a weak link. Besides which, the contacts that have been put in place are not as trustworthy as Alastair would have liked. A decision I am very much regretting now,” he sighed. “Perhaps it is best that he found his way here. We cannot allow him back out in this condition.”

“Does that mean he’ll be able to stay with us?” Harry and Ron grinned at each other as Sirius seemed to pay close attention to the conversation.

“He _is_ defenseless in his current state,” Albus nodded thoughtfully. “It is safer if he were to stay here where we can keep an eye on him. Kingsley will eventually find something wrong and only then will we be able to tell him. Until then, or the mission has done, we will be able to show him that our friend has been here the entire time, safe and sound.”

“Yes!” Harry carefully squeezed Sirius about the neck in joy.

“Yeah!” Ron was happy for the pair to spend whatever time they could together. No matter what form Sirius happened to be in. “Thanks, Professor.”

“It is the only option available to us at the moment,” he smiled warmly at the excitement. “At least, until either the mission is finished or our friend’s magic has been released.”

“But,” Ron frowned, “can’t you do something?”

“No,” Hermione shook her head. “Magic binding is very tricky business and especially the binding of Animagi. It takes a talented person to bind one in their animal form. Actually, it’s safer for the wizard for the bind to dissolve on its own.”

“Well,” Ron shrugged. “I won’t mind having Padfoot around.”

“But maybe we should think about giving him a different name or something,” Hermione ran a hand through her hair, tugging on the end of her ponytail before letting her hand fall back to her side. “We can’t call him his real name and we can’t call him Padfoot or Snuffles…”

“A very wise decision, Ms. Granger,” he nodded. “It would not be advisable to give our friend away this soon in the game. Everyone in the field is not to be distracted until the mission has come to its conclusion, which I expect to be sometime before May.”

“What can we call him, then?” Ron frowned at her.

Poppy went from the backroom and returned with a few potions. “I’m afraid you will all have to leave my patient to me.”

Albus bowed and extended an arm for the Trio to precede him. Hermione gave Sirius a comforting pat and tugged on Harry’s sleeve to get him moving.

“Let’s go, mate,” Ron urged. “Let them take care of him. We’ll be able to visit soon enough.”

But Sirius didn’t like that. He grabbed a hold of Harry’s arm and gently bit down, refusing to be separated or coaxed into letting go.

“Alright,” Pomfrey relented. “We’ll work around Mr. Potter as the poor thing obviously needs someone he trusts with him, right now.”

Ron and Hermione gave their friend reassuring smiles as they were herded out.

“He’ll be fine, Hermione,” Ron awkwardly patted her arm as they left. “It’ll be fun to have Padfoot back in Hogwarts and Harry can spend as much time as he wants with him.”

“Well, it will be a relief to not worry about him,” she smiled slightly. “Now, we just have to worry about Tony.”

Ron thought about that for a minute. “No offense to Sirius, but I think I would prefer Tony here. You know…”

“Well, I’ll take the more vulnerable one,” Hermione shrugged. “Tony can handle himself.”

They had complete faith in Tony’s ability to take care of himself. And if all else failed, they could count on his friend Palmer to help.

Thinking about Tony’s team was the fastest way to get them in a right state, so they avoided that at all costs.

**


	14. Chapter 14

By Monday afternoon, everyone knew the castle had a new guest.

Sirius had been released into the Trio’s care with strict instructions that Hermione would consult religiously and they set him up in the alcove next to Harry’s bed.

Neville may not have liked dogs all that much, but Sirius looked at him so pitifully that he had to scratch his ears. Dean and Seamus took it all in stride, used to things like this by now.

Sure, there were questions about where the Trio’s new pet had come from and where the owner(s) were, but by Wednesday the dog – still unnamed – was pretty much accepted as Harry Potter’s new dog. They didn’t think anything of it that the dog still didn’t have a name, but a lot of students were starting to ask what name the three friends would decide on.

“Well, what if he won’t answer to anything we come up with?” Ron complained during their free period Thursday afternoon before dinner. Ginny shook her head, having a half hour left before class.

“We can’t call him what we would normally,” she reminded. “And we can’t just keep calling him ‘dog’. So, we have to try.”

Harry sat on the floor, leaning against the sideboard of his bed as he let Sirius put his head on his leg. Ron, Ginny and Hermione talked over them as Harry ruffled the floppy ears.

“What do you think?” Harry tilted his own head to look into his Godfather’s grey eyes. “What name would you like?”

“I bet Tony could think of something,” Ron finally huffed, plopping across his bed. “He seems the type to come up with good names.”

Before anything else could be said, a knock was heard at the door.

“It’s open,” Harry called. The door eased open and familiar grey eyes peered around it behind equally familiar glasses.

“AJ?” Hermione sat up. “What are you doing here?”

The Hufflepuff meekly stepped in. “Summer has trouble with Transfiguration and Autumn and Wynter decided we were going to hold a study group in Gryffindor Tower.”

“How’s that coming along?” Ginny stretched.

“We’re taking a break.”

Hermione saw her peeking at Sirius and smiled slightly. “Do you want to meet him?” she invited.

“He doesn’t bite,” Ginny told the younger girl. “He loves kids.”

AJ carefully approached, easing onto her knees a few feet away. “Is he still hurt?”

“He’s getting better,” Harry smiled. He watched her scoot closer before cautiously reaching out to the dog, who sniffed her and pushed his nose under her hand. “He likes you.”

“I hear you don’t have a name for him, yet,” she softly patted the offered nose.

“No,” Ron sighed. “We don’t know where to start.”

AJ sat thinking, absently patting Sirius. “Do you like the letter ‘A’?” she asked him.

Sirius nodded slightly, much to Harry’s surprise.

“Why didn’t we think of that?” Ron frowned, Hermione shushing him as she watched AJ.

Sitting back on her heels, AJ included the rest of them in her gaze. “You could start from there.”

“Oh, AJ,” Ron swung his legs over the edge of his bed. “I didn’t thank you for saving us, did I?”

“It was the right thing to do,” she shrugged, before frowning slightly.

“What?”

“Professor Carlin took points again,” she told Harry.

“Sharing another stool?” he smirked.

“No,” she tilted her head. “I don’t really know what I did this time. I was just walking on the grounds.”

“Teachers usually have a reason for taking points,” Hermione pointed out. “They wouldn’t do that just for no reason at all.”

“They would if you were me,” AJ sighed, eyes downcast.

“Maybe if you ask him, so you wouldn’t do it again.”

“Maybe he’ll do it anyway,” she muttered. Harry suddenly remembered how she distrusted teachers, or adults in general. Oh, she didn’t seem to act like it, but Harry was the one she’d told so he could see her veiled distrust at times. He had to wonder how she had come to have this philosophy.

Sirius whined to get some attention when AJ stopped petting him.

“Well, thanks, AJ,” Ginny piped up. “We’ll see what we come up with and let you know.”

“You might want to introduce him to the rest of Gryffindor House, first,” she advised. “So they can make sure he doesn’t get lost or anything.”

“I was about to suggest that,” Hermione beamed. “Good thinking.”

“It’s just… I would be scared to face a bunch of strangers when I’m still hurt, if I were him.” She smiled as she gave him a last pat. “You’re a smart boy. You’ll do fine.”

Ginny had to get going, so she walked AJ out, leaving the Trio to think about AJ’s suggestion concerning a name.

“What’s good to use that begins with the letter ‘A’?” Hermione sighed. They thought about it until dinner, but they couldn’t come up with anything.

At dinner, Harry was still thinking about it, especially in light of so many people asking.

Leaning his head on a hand, he picked at his food. He sighed, closing his eyes and thinking. ‘Something starting with ‘A’. What would be a good name?’

A few seats away, some of the younger Gryffindors were talking about what they wanted to do when they grew up. Surprisingly, some of them wanted to take Muggle jobs. Not so surprisingly... 

Harry blinked, thinking about it.

Sirius had told him that he had been an Auror, right? That started with ‘A’. But why would any dog be called ‘Auror’? It didn’t sound like it fit to Harry.

But then, he thought about it even more and suddenly came up with the perfect name.

“What about ‘Agent’?” he suddenly asked.

“‘Agent’? Why?” Ron frowned.

“Well, besides him being an agent for Dumbledore?” Harry leaned forward. “It’s brilliant. He used to be an Auror, didn’t he?”

“And Agent is the name that other countries give their Aurors,” Hermione grinned. “Like what Tony said!”

Ron rolled the name in his mouth for a bit, before nodding. “Why not? No one will ever be able to equate a criminal with a dog named Agent, right?”

“But it will take some getting used to,” Hermione mused.

When they went back up after dinner, they asked Sirius about the name and he agreed, but not before Harry caught the surprise that crossed his face. He wondered about that, but didn’t linger on it for long.

When Harry had announced the name that evening, everyone wanted to meet their new Housemate.

Saturday afternoon provided the perfect opportunity.

McGonagall was there, happy to have one of her favorite – if troublesome – students back under her care. She’d been apprised of the situation and called a special meeting for her House to introduce the newly dubbed ‘Agent’.

“Should you find any problem with him, I advise you to take up the problem with Mr. Potter or one of his friends. They will look into it.”

“We don’t anticipate any,” Hermione assured.

When their Head of House left, students began to approach the dog sitting on the landing before heading up the rest of the stairs to the Sixth Year Boys’ Dorms.

“Not all at once,” Ron scowled. “D’you want him to panic?”

 “Well, how are we going to get introduced, then?” someone wanted to know.

“Visitors first,” Harry decided, spotting some in the crowd.

“He’s big,” a Third Year Ravenclaw observed, stretching a hand for inspection.

A Second Year Hufflepuff giggled as Agent pushed his nose up for a lick. “He’s friendly, too.”

Hermione handpicked the next volunteers to stand in line, but didn’t force anyone who didn’t want to. Autumn Benson had an aunt who also had a big dog, and she told Harry and Ron that she didn’t know which dog was her favorite.

“I’m sure you’d like Avery,” she ruffled Agent’s ears. “He’s always wanting to play.”

Once all met him, everyone went back to their previous activities as Agent went to lay under the table the Trio worked at.

After dinner that night, the Trio returned to the Common Room to find the Headmaster cheerfully catching Agent up on anything new that had happened since he went to school at Hogwarts.

And I mean since _Dumbledore_ went to Hogwarts.

They came in just when the Headmaster was regaling the half-asleep Animagus about a time in his school years concerning an unfortunate incident with a Sticking Charm and a toothbrush.

“Hello, Professor,” Harry blinked in surprise. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Quite alright, my boy,” he smiled warmly from his armchair. “I heard about young Agent’s new name and thought you might appreciate some supplies.”

Agent woke up and carefully headed over to where the group moved to a table.

Reaching into the bag, Dumbledore withdrew a dog leash, bowls for food and water, and finally a dog collar with the name Agent in beautiful calligraphy on a Snitch shaped tag. “His pillow has been placed upstairs.”

“Thanks, Professor!” Ron reached down to ruffle Agent’s fur.

“And it won’t be suspicious if we go out in the Muggle world,” Hermione smiled widely.

Agent wasn’t very sure about the collar, but gamely held still as Harry put it on him. “Perfect fit,” Harry announced.

“Excellent,” Dumbledore smiled. “Perhaps you would also take him out on the grounds to meet with other students.”

“We will,” Harry promised.

**


	15. Chapter 15

October began with not much fuss.

Quidditch practice were two nights a week and various DA members could be found practicing with each other in the Room of Requirement.

Agent was a fixture in Gryffindor Tower and would sometimes accompany various students to the Great Hall or on the grounds for an invigorating game of fetch.

Crookshanks had accidently got out and everyone had been on the verge of panic when the Trio had assured them that Agent and Crookshanks had already been introduced. The pair could now be found either curled together for a nap in front of a fireplace in the Common Room, or just occupying the same room in contentment.

One October morning, the Trio bundled up to take Agent on a brisk walk out on the grounds before breakfast.

“It’s going to be a nice day,” Hermione commented, keeping pace with the others.

“Perfect for flying,” Harry agreed, Ron having taken Agent’s leash. The big dog was fully healed now and was happily sniffing at anything that caught his attention.

Ron shook his head. “It is, but I’m going to need to finish my Defense essay.”

“Me, too,” Harry nodded. “The sky will still be there when we get back.”

“Speaking of Defense class,” Hermione turned to them, “has anyone heard of anything else happening?”

Still under the impression that Carlin was out to get Harry, the Trio was extra alert about any other kind of incidents that may have occurred.

“Not lately,” Ron shrugged. “Not that I’ve heard, anyway.”

“Nothing that’s extreme, you mean,” Harry pointed out. But he had noticed that various students had become more accident prone than usual. Nothing as extreme as earlier in the year, like shelves coming down on students or a knife flying through the air. Just little things like Parvati Patil tripping over seemingly nothing and spilling hot soup all over poor Sirius, who had yet to come near her again.

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true.”

“But do you think that Harry’s still the target?” Ron frowned. “The attacks don’t seem to really have a pattern, do they?”

“No,” she agreed. “They don’t. And that’s sort of what concerns me. If Harry’s not the target, who is and why?”

“Why wouldn’t he be, though?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed.

They walked in thoughtful silence for a bit before Hermione breathed in deeply.

“I haven’t had time to look in any yearbooks, because it doesn’t seem very practical if we don’t know what year Adrienne was in.”

“We don’t even know what year the diary was written,” Harry pointed out. As much as he was uncomfortable with reading something that’s so obviously private, he really wanted to find some clue that told him who Adrienne Lewis really was. Harry had decided that they weren’t going to ask a teacher if they remembered someone by that name. Partly because there were bound to have been loads of girls with the same name and partly because someone would probably start asking questions about why they wanted to know. Harry had had enough with people telling him not to do something. And with Mrs. Weasley determined to keep them from Order business, it made him childishly glad to keep something for himself. A sort of ‘so there!’ kind of thing.

The diary wasn’t dangerous anyway. If anything was going to happen, it would have happened by now. And it wasn’t like anyone was actually writing in the thing. At any rate, Hermione was keeping a close eye on it herself.

“I know we said we wouldn’t ask a teacher or Mr. Weasley,” Hermione frowned thoughtfully. “But maybe we could ask Tony to help us.”

“Good idea!” Ron grinned. “Tony would listen to us. He wouldn’t jump on us to be more careful.”

Harry suddenly stopped as a thought occurred to him. “When _was_ the last time we heard from Tony?”

Ron and Hermione stopped as abruptly when they realized they didn’t know.

“You can’t be saying we forgot about Tony!” Ron was horrified. Tony’s Muggle team at NCIS was always doing something like this and Ron didn’t like the idea that they’d done the same thing.

“Well, it’s to be expected,” Hermione sighed, turning to speak to the both of them. “We’ve been all sorts of busy with Agent, the DA, Quidditch, Prefect duties and classes. I’m honestly surprised that he hasn’t written us yet. But maybe he’s been busy, too.”

Tony had, after all, told them that he worked demanding hours and lost track of time and days, more often than not. The Italian probably hadn’t realized the lack of communication, either.

“Let’s go,” Harry suddenly turned on his heel.

“Go where?” Hermione frowned, following him.

“The Owlry,” he answered, heading for the school. “I want to send a note to him.”

“That’s an idea,” Ron eagerly caught up to his best friend, Agent gamely allowing the redhead to lead him back to the school.

“A great idea,” Hermione agreed, trotting after them. “I hadn’t realized just how much I missed hearing from Tony until just now.”

Anxious to re-connect with their friend – if only to assure him that they hadn’t forgotten about him completely - , the Trio raced back to the school and Gryffindor Tower to get their stuff before double timing it to the Owlry with a hastily written note.

As they watched Hedwig fly off, Susan Bones entered the Owlry and sighed as she found them.

“There you are!” she hurried to Harry. “Do you have the Map with you? I need you to find AJ; we can’t find her anywhere.”

“She’s missing?” Hermione frowned, reaching out for her arm. “When was the last time anyone saw her?”

“I don’t know,” Susan tried calming down. “I’ve never lost anyone before!”

“Alright,” Hermione soothed. “It’s alright. We’ll find her.”

Harry and Ron scoured the Map that only a select few knew about outside the Marauders, Weasley twins, Trio, Ginny and Neville. “There she is,” Harry found her. “She’s in the library.”

“Thanks,” Susan gave him a quick, grateful hug before racing out of the Owlry. The Trio watched her on the Map and Ron shook his head.

“Reckon everything’s alright with AJ?” he wanted to know.

Harry shrugged. Maybe the First Year would seek him out. He hadn’t seen her in a few days; she usually sought him out for whatever reason. It was sort of odd, though.

Usually, she would hang out with her triplet friends, Housemates or that Slytherin from the library incident – Ezekiel? – who seemed to tolerate her if nothing else.

To Harry’s knowledge, he was really the only one in the older Years who she’d taken to. Ron teased him about this crush the Hufflepuff supposedly had on him, but Harry wasn’t buying it.

“Let’s go down to breakfast,” Hermione suggested. “Nothing we can do about things now.”

It was a slow day, so all the students were glad to be turned out before dinner.

Harry was stowing his things back in his dorm with Agent lounging on his dog-sized pillow, when Agent suddenly picked his head up and wagged his tail.

Harry turned to see what had caught his Godfather’s attention when he saw AJ standing in the door.

“Hi, AJ,” he smiled slightly, sitting on his trunk. “Everything alright? Susan was worried about you this morning.”

The Hufflepuff shuffled forward to sink on his trunk next to him. “Professor Carlin,” she sniffed, rubbing her already red eyes under her glasses. “He gave me detention again.”

“Again? What do you mean?” this was the first he’d heard of it.

“I had detention before you came back from Hogsmeade with Agent.” The dog left his pillow to lay in front of them, ears ready to listen. “And then Professor Carlin gave me detention again, but I don’t know _why_!”

Harry quickly wrapped an arm around her as tears started falling. “Hey, it’s alright. I’m sure there’s something you aren’t doing right.”

“I thought of that, too,” she sniffed. “But all the other teachers I’ve talked to say that I haven’t been doing anything wrong. Why does Professor Carlin not like me?”

Harry was at a loss to explain. He just sat there, letting her lean against him as she cried. Agent whined in concern.

“I don’t know,” Harry shook his head at him. “AJ, are you sure he didn’t give you a reason?”

“Yes,” she let him take her weight. “He just told me that I had detention and left. I was just doing my homework in the library.”

“Okay, it’s okay,” he made soothing noises as she buried her head in his shoulder. Patting her arm, he looked up to see Ron standing in the doorway watching them.

Ron stayed for another minute before coming forward, forcing a smile on his face. “Carlin giving you trouble?” he threw himself onto the ground next to Agent. “I knew he was no good. Even if Mum did know him in school.”

“That’s it,” Harry blinked. “Ron, how about you go talk to him?”

“Me? Why?”

“Well, your Mum is his old friend and he wants to be friends with us, doesn’t he? He’s always calling you by your first name like the two of you are friends. Ask him what he’s got against AJ.”

Ron blinked slowly. “Me, talk to Carlin? Alone?”

“Well, alright. Me and Hermione’ll go with you.”

Ron thought about it for another few minutes, but finally gave in. “Alright. Next class. Today’s Friday, right? We’ll ask Tuesday after class.”

Harry tilted his head. “Why not talk to him tomorrow? We’ll see him at dinner and ask when we can talk to him. It won’t be for long, anyway.”

AJ still leaned against Harry, but was following the conversation. “Would you?” she smiled hopefully. “It’s just that I’ve never had anyone not like me before, like this. I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Harry squeezed her. “Don’t worry.”

**

“Well, that was a waste of time,” Hermione scowled, leading her two friends out of the Defense classroom. “Doesn’t he know what he’s doing to poor AJ?”

Harry sighed as he followed them.

The talk with Carlin hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped. It was like he was confused that the Trio would defend AJ. Oh, he’d said that he’d lay off her until she did something that he felt was worthy of a detention, but Harry just didn’t have a good feeling about that.

From what he understood, AJ hadn’t done anything that any other teacher had taken offense at.

Harry sighed. ‘Nothing for it,’ he supposed.

Ron frowned. “It’s like he didn’t care about her feelings,” he ranted.

“Why do _you_?” Hermione frowned at him. “You don’t normally.”

Harry rubbed his temples as that sparked one of the pair’s famous arguments. He didn’t need this right now.

Harry hadn’t gotten an answer from Tony, yet, and didn’t expect one for a few days. America was a long way from Hogwarts.

Deciding to just hang out with his Godfather, Harry told them he was going back to Gryffindor Tower and left without waiting for an answer.

Once he got to his dorm, he threw himself across the bed and stared up at the canopy.

Hearing a whine, he propped himself on his elbows and smiled slightly at Agent, who was watching him curiously.

“Carlin didn’t seem to get it,” he told him. “It’s like he didn’t understand that AJ was our friend, too. I think he was under the impression that only me, Ron and Hermione could be friends. What do you make of that?”

Agent huffed and lay back down.

“Me, too.”

**


	16. Chapter 16

October passed, but not without its excitement.

Three days after their talk with Carlin, the Trio woke to news of a fire that had broken out in the History of Magic classroom. The teachers were convinced it was the result of a prank gone wrong because of evidence of students that were found, but not all of that evidence was recent.

Two days later, someone had bewitched the Potions classroom equipment and class had to be cancelled as Snape and the Slytherin Prefects were kept busy trying to keep the equipment from killing someone.

Another few days after that, AJ had spilled juice all over Harry before he had to go to Divination and she felt so guilty that it took fifteen minutes to calm her down. It had been lucky, though, as Lavender Brown told him that something had caused a teapot to go flying in the direction that Harry would have been sitting had he been there with the class.

This incident was the first of many that Harry would note tardiness caused by AJ. But it would be another few months before Harry started connecting dots and coming up with an interesting conclusion.

Two more days later, Hermione was almost knocked out by one of Hagrid’s pumpkins, which would have happened had Agent not tackled her to the ground. Dumbledore and McGonagall were still investigating.

“It’s like this school _wants_ to kill us,” Ron bemoaned. They were at breakfast on the Wednesday before Halloween – and therefore Hogsmeade – weekend.

“I’m sure that’s not it,” Hermione sighed, hand buried in her hair. “And I highly doubt it’s the school doing it.”

“Well, someone wants to kill us, anyway,” he huffed. Post started flying in and the Trio immediately turned their attention upwards to see if Tony had sent them something yet.

“I don’t see Hedwig,” Harry frowned.

“Maybe Tony doesn’t have an owl and borrowed her?” Ron suggested.

“And it might not be flying weather where he is,” Hermione added. “Don’t worry, Harry. There’s a reason for Hedwig not being here.”

Harry shrugged, disappointed that Tony hadn’t sent something yet. The owls made their way back to the Owlry and the disappointed Trio were just turning back to breakfast when Ginny suddenly spotted the snow white owl.

“There she is,” the youngest Weasley pointed. “Looks like Tony sent something after all.”

The Trio impatiently waited for Hedwig to get to them and Harry immediately started to untie the letter when he stopped.

“Harry?” Ron frowned. “What is it?”

Harry just frowned at the letter before turning worried green eyes on him. “That’s not something Tony sent. That’s what I sent _him_.”

Hermione lurched forward to see, and sure enough, it was the note they’d sent Tony days ago.

Ron gulped as he looked from one to the other. “You don’t think something’s happened, do you?” Tony never left a letter or note unanswered.

“Okay,” Hermione breathed deeply, fighting panic. “I’m sure there’s a good explanation for this. Tony not answering is not the end of the world. Maybe something is keeping him from – ” she cut herself off as she realized how that might sound.

“No, no, you’re right,” Harry squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sure that Tony is… is… out on a case,” he opened his eyes and smiled as he nodded. “You know he works with Muggles. Maybe he’s on one of those back to back cases he told us about once.”

“That’s right,” Hermione agreed. “Maybe he’s even out of the country. He said they go international sometimes. And it may not be a good time to talk.”

“But wouldn’t he say something?” Ron frowned, his own panic gradually subsiding.

Harry took off his note and opened it, the friends studying it for any sign of Tony’s influence.

“Nothing,” Ron sighed.

“Maybe he _is_ on a case,” Hermione tilted her head thoughtfully.

They couldn’t do anything about it now, anyway, though Harry wanted make sure Tony was alright. Deciding to wait a few days before trying again, the Trio made their way to their first class. But it didn’t stop them from worrying.

**


	17. Chapter 17

“Happy Halloween!” was the greeting heard all over the school when the Trio struggled out of bed. 

“Why am I so tired?” Hermione rubbed an eye. “I barely did anything.”

“Who knows,” Ron stretched as Harry yawned. “It’s probably the weather.”

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Agent made their way downstairs to the Main Hall and found AJ sitting at their table.

“Don’t you have your own House?” Ron quirked a smile as he ruffled her brown hair, dropping into the seat next to her.

“Yeah… Are you taking Agent today?” AJ turned to Harry.

“I was thinking about it,” he nodded. “Why?”

AJ smiled slightly and shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Did you want him to stay?” Hermione questioned. “I mean, we don’t have to take him. There will be other Hogsmeade visits.”

AJ pushed her eggs around. “No. I’ll be fine. Really.”

The Trio just looked at each other over AJ’s head, bemused at her unusual behavior.

Neville and Ginny took seats next to them and caught the Trio up on anything interesting going on, getting the attention off the Hufflepuff. They ate breakfast and Ginny took off to join her friends as Neville went to check on his Herbology project before heading to Hogsmeade later.

“AJ,” Hermione frowned as the eleven year old walked them to the courtyard. “You’re still too young.”

“I know, but I wanted to talk to Harry about something we talked about earlier,” she lifted a shoulder.

“Alright,” he nodded. Harry and AJ headed for a corner while Ron and Hermione waited for them, a passing group of younger students stopping to coo over Agent, who soaked it up like a sponge.

“So,” she fiddled with her fingers as they got a good distance away. “Remember how I told you that I sleep walk?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, why?”

She let her eyes unfocus to gaze into the distance. “Well, I think I did last night.”

“Really?” Harry blinked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t check the Map.”

“I know, it’s okay,” she lifted a shoulder. “I wasn’t expecting it. But when I woke up this morning, I found this in my pocket.” She extended her hand and revealed a frayed piece of ribbon. “I don’t know where I got it from, I swear. Do you know how unsettling it is to find that you’ve been in the halls and don’t know it?”

“I can imagine,” he took the ribbon. “It looks kind of old.”

It looked like it was a hair ribbon at one time, but it was tied into a knot. It was red and pink, but no pattern.

AJ watched him study it. “What am I going to do with it?”

“Hang onto it for now,” he gave it back. “Maybe it’ll give you some luck.”

“I’ll need it for Defense, huh?” she smiled slightly. Harry smiled back and studied her consideringly before reaching out for a lock of her hair and tying the ribbon around it.

“Consider it extra good luck,” he shrugged. “Maybe my talent with it will rub off on you.”

AJ watched him hold the lock of her hair with a small smile. “You know, in some cultures, when a boy ties a ribbon onto a girl’s hair, that girl is on his side for life.”

“And when a girl ties a ribbon onto a boy’s hair?” he let the lock drop to stuff his hands into his pockets.

She smiled at him. “I think you mean onto a boy’s wrist. That’s how alliances were made back in the early days. When a boy came of age, he tied a piece of ribbon onto a girl’s hair so that that girl could be part of his inner circle. That girl then tied a ribbon onto another boy’s wrist so that he could join them. But only girls could tie ribbons onto boys’ wrists, who were only allowed to tie them into girls’ hair. That way, there wouldn’t be any one person who was considered above the other based on their gender.”

“It sounds like a very good way of making friends,” Harry smiled at the way she reminded him of Luna right then.

“And the cool thing is,” she leaned closer. “They weren’t allowed to betray each other. The ribbons were especially made so that they were unable to betray each other.” Glancing past him, she smiled again. “You could tie a ribbon onto Hermione’s hair and let her tie another one onto Ron’s wrist. Then I could like them.”

“Why don’t you tie one on Ron?” he questioned.

“I could, that would work,” she nodded. “But now I have to find a ribbon.”

“Why not use this one?” Harry wanted to know.

“If I use the one you tied, then that would technically be a marriage proposal,” she deadpanned, grey eyes sparkling.

“Oh…”

The pair wandered back to Agent, Hermione and Ron, AJ announcing, “We are allies, now.” She skipped off back inside without another word.

“What the bloody hell was that about?” Ron frowned after her.

“Making allies,” he shrugged. “We’ll need as many people as we can.”

“That’s true,” Hermione studied him with narrow eyes, before filing it away and prodding her three friends to get a move on.

“If AJ had been with us, you know, during the Christmas holidays, would she have… as well?” Harry suddenly asked.

“What brought this on?” Ron smirked, Agent sniffing around in front of them.

“Something she said. It’s nothing, but I kind of wonder.”

“I guess we’ll never know, will we?” Hermione linked her arm with his. “Besides, I’m happy with us three and Tony.”

“Hey,” Ron lifted a finger. “You know, we could send an express message through the Post office in Hogsmeade.”

“And if Tony doesn’t answer, then we’ll know that he’s on a case,” Hermione happily filled in. That was the only scenario they would allow themselves to believe. Thinking the worst would not help them any.

Tony would probably laugh at them if they made a fuss, only to find him coming back from some case related assignment all safe and sound.

So, until otherwise, Tony was on a case.

They made their way to Hogsmeade and Harry left the three outside as he went to send the letter.

Remembering what Hermione had told him in Third Year, Harry hadn’t been surprised to see the color coded owl perches, but he was thrown for a loop at the sheer number of them. There were easily one hundred owls and eagles per coded section.

He was interrupted from his gawking when a middle aged wizard roughly shoved past him.

“What is his problem?” he heard a witch complain, also having been shoved.

Harry shook his head as he found himself at one of the eight open registers. “Er, hello,” he smiled sheepishly as a sleepy eyed witch yawned a hello. “I’d like to send an international note?”

“Right-o,” she yawned again. “When would you like the note to arrive?”

He hadn’t actually thought about that. “Er, in the next three days, if possible.”

“Would you like the bird to stay for an answer?”

“Yes, please.”

“Would you like to receive it at Hogwarts?”

“Yes, please.”

Several coins later, Harry left the Post office feeling a little better at having set the wheels in motion. Maybe Hermione was right and the Italian was buried under work, but Harry would feel better if he knew that was all that was keeping Tony from talking with them.

But the least Tony could do was send a short note to say he was busy and wouldn’t be available for a while. But the letter was on its way, so all they could do was wait.

Which is what Harry was expecting his friends to be doing when he finally got outside.

“Where did they go?” he frowned, seeing no one waiting for him. Huffing, he picked a direction and started walking. Making his way down the street, he tried to imagine the Wizarding village as his parents, Godfather and one time Professor had.

From what he understood, the village had changed little since then. As Hogwarts had changed little from when he had first started. Oh, it was a little older and he would probably never figure out all its secrets – even if, by some chance, he became Headmaster – and he was fine with that.

He never wanted Hogwarts to lose its mystery and that included keeping all the secrets that not even the (in)famous Harry Potter could ever dream of solving. One day, far into the distant future, when Hogwarts would undoubtedly be solved by some clever, clever puzzle-loving student, it would be a very sad day indeed.

Harry snickered as he entertained the idea that the future Hogwarts-solving student would probably be one of Hermione’s descendants. It sounded exactly like the thing she would do.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he rounded the corner and something small caught his eye. Pausing, he looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him before he took a few steps off the path to hunker down in the grass.

He was about to pick up the object that had caught his eye, when he remembered the last Spring holidays and the mock NCIS crime scene in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place.

‘Take note of the details of the clue before you do anything else,’ Tony’s advice ran through his mind. ‘Then, and only then, you handle it to make more observations.’ Harry smiled slightly as he remembered Sirius agreeing. ‘Because you can tell if something has a curse on it if you take the time to observe.’

Well…

Harry was pretty sure that the curse thing didn’t apply to NCIS, but it was useful to Aurors and American Agents.

Getting comfortable, he let sharp green eyes focus on the centimeters high charm lying in the grass.

It was obviously old, but it was still recognizable as a young female’s trinket. The colors were faded, but he could see faint green traces remaining in the grooves of the small flower. There were also traces of blue where the petals met the stem and the little leaf sticking to the right had a chip on the tip.

There was nothing extraordinary about it, but the fact that it was there at all was surprising. There were a lot of scenarios that Harry could draw from this.

The little girl that it had belonged to probably didn’t know it was missing.

Perhaps, instead, it was an older girl that was either keeping it for sentimental value for a girlhood gone past or something that a female relative had given her.

When Harry decided that he got all he could get from just looking, he carefully picked it up and laid it on his palm. No change.

Then he turned it over and it was the same story, but there was a small ‘A’ in the center of the flower.

“So someone with a name that starts with ‘A’ owns this flower,” he concluded. Shaking away an odd sense of déjà vu, he suddenly came back to himself and looked around. He sighed as he saw that he had gone unnoticed.

Feeling oddly like one of Tony’s NCIS Agents, Harry carefully dropped the little flower charm into his trouser pocket. Rolling his eyes, he finally reached into his hooded sweatshirt’s pocket and withdrew his radio. Keying the button as Tony had taught the Trio, Harry put the radio to his mouth as he adjusted the dial. “Potter to Weasley. Come in, Ron.”

The radio crackled a little with static. “ _Yeah, Harry. I read you.”_

“Where are you?”

 _“…”_ Harry had the strangest feeling that Ron and Hermione were sharing a wide-eyed look.

“Ron?”

_“Oh. Uh, the Three Broomsticks.”_

Harry ruffled his hair. “Right. Stay where you are. I’m on my way.”

Quickly getting his bearings, he absently made note of his current location for future snooping around – because maybe the little flower had fallen with something else – and set off for the Three Broomsticks.

Entering the pub a few minutes later, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the lighting and spotted his friends at a corner table, a copy of the _Daily Prophet_ laid out on the table in front of them.

Approaching, he saw Agent under the table with a bowl of water and a few bits of turkey. Harry felt vindicated as he noticed his Godfather sitting next to the third chair and keeping his distance from the other two. Evidently, Sirius hadn’t approved of up and leaving him.

“Sorry, Harry,” Hermione apologized as he settled down and a waitress had gone with his order. “It was just that I had overheard someone saying something about Sirius Black and I had to find out what it was.”

Harry felt Agent lean against his leg and reached down to pet his Godfather on the head. Deciding to let them off the hook – this time -, he leaned his elbows on the table. “What did you find out?”

Hermione pointed at an article in the paper. “This says there was a murder in London just this last week.”

“Why are we just now hearing about this?” Harry frowned.

“Well,” she shook her head. “They really just found him. He didn’t show up to his job meeting at the Ministry and he’d been on vacation for the few days previous. One of his co-workers had gone to check up on him at his flat in Diagon Alley and found…”

“He was scattered all over the place,” Ron picked up, not bothered in the least after all they’d seen and done over the years. “Rumor is that Sirius Black did it, but no one can figure out how he might have gotten in without magic or portkey and there’s no fireplace. He had to have been let in.”

“Who was the victim?” Harry asked, smiling in thanks as the waitress placed his drink in front of him.

Hermione waited as she left before continuing. “His name is Norman Fisher. He wasn’t anyone important at the Ministry, but he went to Hogwarts. The investigation’s still on-going.”

“What House?” Ron wanted to know.

“I don’t know; it doesn’t say. Doesn’t say what Year, either.”

The Trio mulled it over for a while, Harry reading the article for himself. Ron and Hermione had been spot on as there was nothing else he could see.

“It doesn’t look like he’s the only suspect, either,” he noted. “Seems they’ve got other suspects they’re looking into.”

“It’s still an open case,” Hermione pointed out. Seeing their blank looks, she rolled her eyes. “Tony said that Agents and Aurors have – or should have – the same policy of keeping information secret about open cases. If it gets leaked to the media, the suspect spooks and the investigators are back at Square One.”

“When did he say this?” Ron frowned at her.

“He and Tonks were comparing notes on Magical and Muggle procedures last time we were all together and I couldn’t help overhearing them. Both MNP and NCIS share it with all investigators all over the world. Tony says that it’s very effective, especially when someone lets slip something that only the killer would know.”

“So,” Ron frowned. “It’s like trying to make sure that someone isn’t under Polyjuice and asking them a question that only you and them know the answer to. If they get it wrong, they’re the imposter."

“It’s the same principle,” Hermione nodded. “Only in reverse.”

“Guess we’ll never know who the other suspects are,” Harry shook his head. “But at least Sirius isn’t the only one.”

A whine came from under the table in agreement.

**

They hung out and explored the village by themselves or some of the others they crossed paths with. Harry would never get tired of the dear place, that was for sure.

About an hour after eating lunch back at the Three Broomsticks, the Trio decided to go back to the Tower and review the spells they were going to go over with the DA.

They were just passing the gates when Agent suddenly jerked forward, almost pulling Hermione off balance.

“Agent, what’s wrong?” Harry dropped to one knee, green eyes scanning their surroundings. The dog just started barking, fixated on something only he knew.

“What is it?” Ron looked nervously around, expecting something to come after them.

Thinking quickly, Harry took out his wand as he reached out to the leash’s clip. “I’m going to unhook you,” he yelled. “Go after whatever it is and we’ll be right behind you.”

“We’re ready,” Hermione called, getting ready for Harry to unhook leash from dog. Agent just barked louder, a sense of urgency infused in his frame as he strained to get going.

“Ready? Go!” Harry unclicked the clip and Agent took off like a shot, barking madly as he raced across the grounds. The commotion got the attention of a group of DA members who had decided to study outside and they looked up to see first Agent, then the Trio racing after him. Other students saw what was going on and hurried after them to see what kind of assistance they could lend.

The Trio realized that Agent was leading them toward the lake and was alert for any sign of attack, but Harry spotted the lone figure walking confidently into the lake, clothes and all.

“Who is that?” Hermione puffed.

The bottom dropped out of Harry’s stomach when he recognized who it was attempting to drown themselves. “It’s AJ! Good Merlin, it’s AJ!”

Everyone started heading for the First Year, determined to reach her before she could walk out any farther, but they were all too far away. Harry was vaguely aware of a group of teachers racing after them, but he was too focused on Agent jumping into the water after the Hufflepuff to really notice.

Putting on a burst of speed, Harry was first into the lake after him and saw AJ take one more step before she dropped beneath the waves.

He didn’t think twice about diving after her and Agent swam in circles above where they had went under. The Gryffindor lit his wand and found AJ some meters below him. She seemed to be flailing around. He kicked as hard as he could and reached out, grabbing her waving arm and pulling her toward the surface.

Ron was there to help and the three of them broke the surface not too far from Agent.

“Are you alright?” Harry coughed as AJ gasped for air.

“There’s the teachers,” Ron noted absently as he treaded water next to them.

“AJ?” Harry frowned at her rigidness and maneuvered around to see her face. “What’s wrong?” Agent whined as he paddled closer to them.

Wide grey eyes stared into his green and Harry was taken aback at the sheer terror in her expression.

“What?” Ron started swimming them back to shallow water. “Harry? AJ?”

“Harry?” her lower lip trembled as tears started to well up in her eyes. “Why am I in the water? I can’t swim.”

**

“… and after Wynter left, I went back to the Common Room,” AJ sniffed as she finished the entire tale to the Trio – because she refused to let Harry go -, Agent – because he was the one to alert everyone else and he didn’t leave the Trio’s side for long outside of class - , the four Heads of House, the Headmaster and Madam Pomfrey. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Thank you, my dear,” Dumbledore smiled reassuringly, patting her arm. “You have done splendidly. Now, let Poppy take care of you and I hope you will be amenable to joining us for the Feast.”

“I’ll try,” she wiped her eyes under her glasses. Sprout squeezed her arm before the five teachers gathered at the other end of the Hospital Wing to discuss what course of action to do next.

“That must have been scary,” Hermione was on the bed next to her.

“It was,” she gave the older girl a watery smile before drinking another Pepper-up potion. After fussing for a few more minutes, Pomfrey bustled over to the others and joined their whisperings.

Agent was curled up at the foot of the bed and whined in concern. AJ reached over to pat him on the head. “Thanks, Agent,” she leaned against Harry, him having to settle on the bed so that his arm would be more comfortable. “Without you, I probably would have drowned.”

“AJ,” Hermione got her attention. “You are absolutely sure that you can’t remember anything?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “Nothing.”

“We believe you,” Harry assured. “We just wanted to make absolutely certain.”

“It really sounds like Imperio,” Ron shifted on his stool. “But why AJ? I mean, I would be able to understand Harry being made to drown himself. But you have no reason to have anyone wanting to kill you, right?”

“I can’t think of any,” AJ tilted her head, sniffing slightly. “What’s Imperio?”

“An Unforgivable,” Hermione explained. “One of three. Imperious is the Control curse, Cruciatus is Torture and…”

“The Killing curse,” AJ glanced at Harry. “Avada Kedavra.”

“Right,” Harry hugged her. “Seeing who I am and all.”

They wondered about that until Pomfrey chased Agent and the Trio out, reassuring them that they would see her at dinner.

When dinner rolled around, everyone knew what had happened and AJ’s House closed ranks around her.

The teachers and staff were checking the Hufflepuff Common Room for anything suspicious while everyone was in the Great Hall.

“You know,” Ron bent under the table to see Agent laying between Harry and Neville. “You can go over with AJ, if you want.”

Agent heaved a deep sigh and snuggled closer to Harry.

“You don’t have to go,” Neville looked down. “I don’t mind.”

Ginny looked up from her plate. “I think it’s because something always happens to Harry on Halloween. Or something happens, period.”

“Good point,” Ron blinked.

“But you know,” Hermione smiled slightly, “I feel kind of cheated. Ever since we started here, we’ve always had something happen to us on Halloween. This is the first time that something’s happened to someone else. But, I would gladly take it in a heartbeat if it meant that someone like AJ didn’t get hurt.”

“Yeah,” Ron sighed. “What a way to start your school career.”

“We should talk,” Harry chuckled. “Look what happened to us in First Year. Should I be expecting another troll?”

“Well, that’s different,” Ron pointed out. “We’re Gryffindors. We’re used to it. Not someone like AJ. A Hufflepuff and a First Year.”

They agreed that Hufflepuffs had no business being targets for anyone. Not someone as young as AJ or as old as Sprout.

But Harry agreed with Hermione about gladly offering to be the target if they had a choice. He preferred it, actually. He hated other people getting hurt on his behalf.

Or killed.

Fortunately, Dean and Seamus sidled into seats next to them and turned their attention elsewhere.

Nothing else happened that night.

**


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it's been so long, since I just started one of the local Universities in August and a whole lot of other excitement before and since.
> 
> I have not stopped writing about this story - because I'm trying to untangle a bunch of ideas right now -, but I'm juggling another series as well as the Summer Contacts subseries 'Revelations', which is basically a bunch of future crossover background stories. Adding to this story's sequel and that sequel's sequel, I'm trying to direct the muse back to this story because I'm curious to see if anyone will be catching clues contained in the future chapters. Any authors out there will know what I mean. It's incredibly frustrating to not give it all away at once.

Because of AJ’s attempted drowning, Quidditch was pushed back so that the staff could make sure nothing like the incident could happen again.

“I don’t know if the Pitch is ready for it, yet,” Harry mused, remembering that the incident earlier in the year had pretty much demolished a good chunk of the Pitch when Bludgers had tried going after the Gryffindor House team.

“Yeah,” Ron moped, laying limply on the couch next to him.

“Don’t you care about your safety?” Hermione frowned at him from the floor.

“If I did, I wouldn’t be playing,” he muttered.

Harry thought for a moment before standing. “I’m going down to the kitchens. Anyone want to go?”

Hermione begged off, claiming homework, and Ron just stared at the flames reflecting off the ceiling.

Shrugging, he decided to go down himself. Agent was with Neville for the day, collecting some sort of lake plant for Professor Sprout.

When Harry passed the Hufflepuff entrance, he startled slightly when it suddenly opened.

“Harry, come here,” AJ reached out to pull him in. “I need to talk to you.”

It wasn’t like he had a choice, the kid being surprisingly strong for her size.

Stumbling through, he blinked at the sea of yellow and black in front of him.

Somewhat like the Gryffindor Commons, the Hufflepuff one was warm and cozy, even more so than the welcoming fires in the Tower. And it sort of made him feel calm, which was kind of unsettling.

“Hey, Potter,” one of the older Years greeted as AJ hauled him past. Similar greetings were heard as AJ finally stuffed themselves into a corner.

“I thought we weren’t allowed in here,” Harry blinked, settling onto a stool.

“Well, siblings can visit each other,” she pointed at the Benson triplets playing a card game. “Hufflepuff lets us invite the people that we really want to visit with.”

“Why me?” he frowned.

“Remember that ribbon I showed you?” she settled easily next to him. Although, why they weren’t seated at one of the two seater sofas was beyond him. “Well, I had originally forgot about it until I returned to my Dorm last night. It wasn’t in my hair anymore, so I thought it had dropped somewhere. Then I remembered that the very last thing I remember doing was tying the ribbon on that candlestick holder.”

Harry turned to look where she was pointing and noted one of many candle holders on the wall. “What then?”

“Well, I asked around, but no one had really been in here. I even asked some of the portraits, but I think the teachers already had.” She suddenly gasped. “You don’t think one of the teachers took it, do you?”

“Why would one of the teachers take your hair ribbon?” Harry wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “That’s why I don’t trust them.”

“You don’t trust the teachers? AJ…”

“No, no, I understand that you do and I’m not saying that you should stop,” she hastened to explain. “All I’m saying is that I’m not going to trust them this soon.”

Harry shook his head. “Why don’t you trust the teachers?”

“I don’t trust anyone that condescending,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “They are always up to no good.”

Harry couldn’t follow her reasoning as much as she thought he did. “You’ll have to explain that.”

AJ, instead, just leveled a look at him that made him feel like she was looking inside of him. “You’ll see. And then you’ll take my words to heart.”

Sadly, she would be right.

**

When Harry woke up the next morning, he finally remembered the little flower charm that he’d found near the Post office. He retrieved it from his pocket and put it in his trunk with everything else, hoping to figure out where it came from at a later date.

Adrienne’s diary was not very much help, either, on clues that the Trio could use. Ron had asked why they weren’t reading faster and Hermione had said that there could be a clue anywhere and they needed to take it slow so they could catch it.

On Thursday, however, things were looking up as the owl from the Post office landed next to Harry.

“Did you get a response?” Hermione leaned forward.

“I made sure it stayed for an answer,” Harry told her as she and Ron watched Harry take the letter. He opened it, but the smile on his face dimmed as he read.

“What?” Ron looked from Harry to the letter and back.

“It’s not from Tony,” he answered, handing it over. “His friend wrote, instead.”

Hermione and Ron bent their heads as Hermione read quietly aloud.

_“Dear Mr. Potter,_

_I know that I’m not who you were expecting to hear from, but my name is Jimmy Palmer. I know that Tony would have written if he could, but Director Vance and Agent Donners have told me that he’s on an extended undercover mission and any word we hear from him may blow his cover._

_Apparently, someone important at the MNP office wanted him because he was the best at his job and, although I was disappointed to hear that he was away, I understand that Tony is one of the best in any agency. It’s good for him to be needed based on his skills instead of someone’s ulterior motives._

_I understand that you’ve been trying to reach him. If he had had the time to tell you, I’m absolutely certain that he would have. But the case he’s on is time sensitive, as Donners has told me, so it’s completely understandable._

_If you like, I can keep the message you wrote and give it to him when he comes back. The only problem is, I don’t know when that will be. You never know how long an assignment is going to last. It could be a month from now, or several, or he could come back next week. There are no guarantees._

_Please don’t worry about Tony, okay? He’s one of the best wizards – and Agents – that I know. You don’t survive long on the Major Crimes Response Team with Agent Gibbs if you aren’t._

_Sincerely Yours,_

_Jimmy Palmer.”_

“Well, that’s it, then,” Hermione sat back. “Tony’s undercover. That’s why he couldn’t contact us.”

“Sounds like we won’t be able to hear from him in a long time,” Ron noted.

“Maybe I should write Palmer back and tell him to let us know if he gets any new information,” Harry mused.

“But you saw what he wrote, Harry,” Hermione told him. “If Tony breaks cover for even one moment – ”

“Yeah, but Tony’s smart. He’ll figure out something to let us know he’s doing okay.”

“I’m not saying he isn’t,” she placated. “I just think he should be careful.”

“As careful as us?” Ron smirked.

“ _More_ careful,” she frowned. “He’s doing work as dangerous as Professor Lupin.”

“But we don’t even know what Lupin’s doing.”

“Exactly my point!”

“Look,” Harry broke in. “Palmer said that he can give the letter to Tony when he gets back. If we don’t hear from him by the start of December, we’ll ask Palmer if he’s heard anything.”

“As long as he’s careful,” Hermione reluctantly conceded. She frowned as a new thought occurred to her. “Do you think we’ll feel it if Tony gets hurt? Because of…” she gave them a look.

“Maybe,” Ron mused. “Remember, the bond’s different for almost everyone, so we actually might. There’s no telling, especially for an Italian.”

“Why?” Harry folded the letter back in the envelope.

“Italians are special. I think there’s a book on it somewhere. Being familial bonded, like Harry is with Tony, is something well documented. Remember when Umbridge attacked Harry last year? Tony could feel it, too, and that’s why the Americans got here so quickly. I never had much contact with Italians, so I’m thinking that if a bonded family member is attacked by magical means, the Italian bonded to them feels it, too. I really don’t know if they get affected by Muggle means or not, but the Magical way ripples across the connection.”

“Are we familial bonded with him, too?” Hermione asked, gesturing between her and Ron.

“There’s probably a way to find out if we are without resorting to hurting ourselves, but I don’t know of any.”

When the Trio headed back to Gryffindor Tower later that night, they were surprised to see Dumbledore there, seemingly continuing where he left off the last time he and Sirius were together.

“Ah, there you are,” he smiled up at them, Agent appearing to almost be asleep. “I was just telling our friend here about an incident in my second year of teaching. It was one of many, but it stuck out in my mind.”

“Can we help you, sir?” Hermione wanted to know.

He blinked for a minute as if trying to remember, before smoothly standing from his armchair and patting Agent on the head. “Perhaps I’ll finish next time, my boy. Harry,” he turned to him. “Could I trouble you for some of your time?”

“Sure,” he nodded.

“Hey, Harry,” Ron nudged him. “Can I practice with the Firebolt?”

“Go for it.”

Dumbledore led Harry back out of the Tower and slowly made their way to the Astronomy Tower.

“How has your year been so far?” he smiled pleasantly.

“Good.”

“Excellent. Any more incidents occur?”

“Not since AJ,” he shrugged. He didn’t know if all the random accidents were related or not, but it was only between the Trio and a few others who would see them as attacks. He would have said something about AJ’s missing ribbon, but it was all circumstantial and would probably lead to questions about how she’d come across the ribbon to begin with. Harry hadn’t had permission to tell anyone else but Ron about AJ’s supposed sleep walking, which Harry believed, but had yet to see.

“We have taken all necessary precautions to ensure that Ms. Johnson’s experience would not be repeated.”

“That’s good.”

They wandered in silence for a while, lost in their own thoughts.

They eventually ended up in the Astronomy Tower and stood next to a window to watch the stars come out.

“I see our friend is enjoying himself.”

Harry smiled slightly. “He is.”

“However, I’m not quite so sure he is enjoying my stories,” he smiled ruefully out into the night. “But I am grateful he is allowing me to ramble. It’s very difficult to find an audience.”

“Sir? What are the chances he’ll be allowed to come next year?”

“Perhaps he will visit occasionally, but he still does have more work to do,” he patted his shoulder. “Other than that, I see no other reason why he won’t be able to.”

Staring out at the stars for another few minutes, Harry glanced at him. “Sir? Not that I’m not happy to be here, but…”

“Ah, yes,” he pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I was wondering, perhaps, if you had been in contact with our American friend.”

“Tony? No, but Palmer wrote us. He’s a wizard, too.”

“I am familiar with Mr. Palmer, yes,” he nodded. “Has he been in contact with Tony?”

“No,” Harry shook his head. “Tony’s undercover and can’t be contacted.”

Dumbledore studied him thoughtfully and nodded. Harry had the feeling that something was going on, but before he could speak, Dumbledore continued, “Not to worry, Harry. I’m fully confident in Tony’s abilities, as you should be.”

“I am,” he assured. “We all are.”

“Good.”

As Harry and Dumbledore parted ways a few minutes later, Harry made his way back to the Tower lost in thought.

It seemed like Dumbledore only wanted to talk to him to find out if he’d heard from Tony. But that didn’t have to mean anything, right?

Maybe Dumbledore knew something about Tony’s assignment. Whatever it was he might know, it didn’t seem urgent, but Harry resolved to tell Ron and Hermione regardless.

**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Hufflepuff says that no one can really go visit the Common Room (besides the teachers), but I think that family should at least spend time with them on certain days/ dates where there is some sort of 'Visiting Day' or something.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy - late - holidays! 
> 
> We have a familiar face showing up.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear.

Harry thought it was perfect flying weather, but was equally sure that Ron didn’t agree.

His best friend didn’t look like he could be able to stand up let alone fly. He was pale, too.

“You have to eat something,” Hermione urged, pushing toast at him. “You don’t want to fall off your broom, do you?”

The others on the team – except the old hands – also looked ready to throw up.

Agent, not knowing what else to do, went from one member of the team to the other, trying to boost their morale.

“Thanks for trying, mate,” Ron patted his head. “But I don’t think it’s working.”

“Well, he has to try,” Hermione told him. “He picks up on emotions and has to do something. That’s what dogs do.”

Luna Lovegood slipped into the seat next to Neville, lion head hat in place.

“I’ll be rooting for you,” she told them.

“Thanks, Luna,” Ginny smiled at her.

AJ stopped by, too. She looked sort of cute with an all Gryffindor ensemble. Her normally black glasses were charmed to be red and gold to go with the red and gold face paint. She wore a Gryffindor themed floppy hat and clutched a Gryffindor flag with the House design.

“I guess you’ll be rooting for us, then, huh?” Neville twisted to look at her.

“Inside,” she told him. “But Professor McGonagall wants me in the Commentary seat. I don’t know why.”

“Congratulations,” Ron smiled weakly. “And then everyone will know what a failure I’ll be.”

“No, you won’t,” AJ told him. “I’ve seen you, remember.”

“And you haven’t told your House team?” Ginny raised an eyebrow.

“I’m Harry’s ally,” she said simply. “I’m not supposed to.”

He flushed as the others turned questioning looks on him. “Er, never mind. It’s almost time for us to go.”

The Hufflepuff leaned close to him to whisper in his ear. “I still haven’t found the ribbon, so I’m still inclined to believe a teacher took it.”

“Maybe who you got it from in the first place decided to take it back.”

“I don’t even remember,” she lifted a shoulder. She grinned. “I’ve never seen a Quidditch match before, though. One of the Chasers had to explain it to me last night.”

“Hope we don’t disappoint,” Harry smiled at her obvious excitement.

“See you,” she was pulled away by the Benson girl in Hufflepuff – Summer - , who was torn between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, both of which her sisters were part of.

“On one hand,” she commented, face half red and half purple, “I want to tell you to smash Ravenclaw, but on the other, I want them to win.”

“It must be difficult being a set,” Hermione mused, watching AJ and Summer meet up with Autumn and Wynter.

Her and Harry bullied Ron into finishing his toast before marching out the castle doors to head out to the Pitch.

“Hello, there!”

They stopped just outside the castle and turned to watch an older wizard hurrying toward them.

“Hi,” he skid to a stop a few feet away. Adjusting his round glasses, the wizard smiled widely, curly dark hair stuffed under a baseball cap. “I’m really excited to be here. I – I know that I wasn’t ever expecting to meet you, but let me just say, I have heard nothing but good things about you.” He reached out to pump Harry’s arm. “You and your friends are legendary and I can’t really tell what’s rumor and what’s not, but Dr. Mallard always said, ‘If it seems extravagant, then it is likely false.’ But I don’t quite think he was talking about magic, you know? Ah, now, knowing what I know about you, I’m more likely to believe than dismiss. I mean, the Tri-Wizard Tournament is extravagant, but it really did happen… and now you’re looking at me like I’m nuts…”

“Not much of a stretch, mate,” Ron eyed him, not sure what to expect, but ready to act in a moment's notice.

“Huh?” he blinked, eyes following Ron’s down to where he still held a slightly alarmed Harry by the arm. “Oh! I’m so sorry,” he jumped back, flushing brightly. “Yeah… I was cornered by my co-worker who forced Caf-Pow! on me and I’m still riding the rush.”

Hermione licked her lips, but Dumbledore ambled into view before she could respond.

“Ah, Mr. Potter,” he called. “I see you’ve met Mr. Palmer.”

“Oh, hello, sir,” he whipped his cap off his head, revealing thick curls. “Oh, yes, I – forgot to introduce myself again,” he hung his head.

“Hold on,” Harry frowned. “Palmer? From NCIS?”

“Tony told you about me, huh?” he smiled widely. “Oh, you got the letter I sent? I really am sorry, but I’m just as much in the dark as you all are about where he is.”

Dumbledore joined them and smiled at Palmer. “If we cannot have Tony, we will make do with one of his closest friends.”

“Well, I don’t think of myself as one of his closest friends,” he said modestly.

Now that it was established that everything was alright, the Trio relaxed and introduced themselves.

“I know,” he told them. “You already know me as Palmer, so I don’t mind if you call me that. I’m more used to that name than ‘Jimmy’ by now.”

“Are you here for the match, then?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen Quidditch, but not a school match. It’s all kind of exciting.”

As Hermione and Palmer went on ahead, Harry turned to Dumbledore. “Did you invite him, sir?”

“Ah, well, when he got your letter meant for Tony, he came to me thinking that it would be a shame if Tony wasn’t present. So, he decided to come here himself. I hope you and your friends don’t mind.”

“We wanted to meet him anyway,” Ron shrugged, the three of them following the other two.

Arriving at the Pitch, Dumbledore herded Palmer toward the staff seats in the air and Palmer called back a good luck to Harry and Ron, which Hermione echoed as she joined the steady stream of students making their way to the stands.

In the team locker-room, they went over their plans for the final time before taking to the field. The roar from the stands was almost deafening as Harry led the team outside, AJ’s voice ringing throughout the stands as she introduced the team members. Harry shook hands with the Ravenclaw captain and the teams took to the air.

_“There they go! Langdon goes after the Quaffle with Ravenclaw Jeffries hot on her tail. Look out there, Bell! Bludger almost unseats the other Gryffindor Chaser. Dunne, you’re supposed to keep those things **away** from the players! Muldoon goes after the one going for Weasley – er, Ginny. Hey, Professor, I can’t call them both Weasley! Then it’ll be Weasley going after the Quaffle and one narrowly keeping one out of the goals. People will think they’re the same one. Hey, something’s got Gryffindor Potter amused.”_

Good Merlin, Harry tried not to laugh, but AJ’s continued commentary was just too funny.

After about twenty minutes, the score was about tied with G-20, R-10.

_“These teams aren’t making it easy for the other, that’s for sure. There Ginny goes with the Quaffle. Passes it to Langdon, who passes it to Bell. Not bad, Bell. Ten points to the Lions. Hey, Potter. Eyes on the road. How’d you like it if the great Harry Potter got taken out by a goal post?”_

‘That would be embarrassing,’ he conceded, but still kept an ear out for her voice as he soared above the players fighting for possession of the red ball.

Two and a half hours passed with only a few true sightings of the Snitch, but there was nothing for it.

Gryffindor was ahead twenty points, but Ravenclaw was trying hard to catch up.

Harry sighed. He knew what he had been getting into when he started playing Quidditch, but…

Suddenly, Harry caught sight of it, flitting between two of the Ravenclaw goal posts, and dove for it.

He was vaguely aware that AJ started shouting at the microphone as the pair of Seekers went into a dive. He was so focused on the Snitch as it zipped between and around players and Bludgers alike that it took him a bit to realize that not only had her tone changed, but that she was also screaming. And it wasn’t just her, either.

The noise from the crowd ratcheted up, but Harry was dimly aware from the adrenalin racing through him. He was gaining on the Snitch, a few more feet, when he just so happened to glance down.

And was immediately sorry he did.

For the rest of his life, and those witnessing the match would also never forget, Harry would always remember glancing down at that moment to see his broom shrinking and changing into a regular tree branch.

The players from both teams immediately started racing toward him as gravity kicked in and he started to fall. 

Harry had only felt the freefalling sensation once before, in his Third Year. He had hoped to never feel it again, but that was what was happening. As he watched the players race toward him, he knew that none of them would reach him in time to catch him as he tumbled down, still clutching the branch.

But he was wrong.

He had been closest to the Gryffindor posts and, therefore, Ron.

His best friend quickly abandoned his goal posts and dove after him, reaching him seconds before he would have hit the ground and grabbing his free hand, jolting him to a stop with enough force to make Ron end up hanging onto his own broom upside down with his knees as both hands held on to Harry with bruising force.

“You know,” Ron panted, hovering there. “I was kind of hoping this wouldn’t happen, but I should have known better, huh?”

Harry smiled weakly at him as the noise finally filtered through the adrenalin and he looked out as the crowd went wild. AJ’s commentary – once she’d uncovered her eyes – filtered through as well and it was with great surprise that Harry actually registered what she was yelling:

_“In an unbelievable turn of events, the Gryffindor Keeper caught the Gryffindor Seeker and ended up catching the Snitch as well! What a game! Oh, hey, Professor McGonagall, is that legal?”_

Harry and Ron looked at each other before staring at the place where Ron’s hands held on to Harry’s free one and found a pair of golden wings flapping furiously where their palms met.

They were still laughing long after the match was declared a Gryffindor victory.

**

“Alright,” Hermione rubbed her forehead as she paced between Harry and Ron, both of whom were wearing slings after Ron caught Harry and ended up dislocating both their right shoulders. “So, Harry’s Firebolt was found in the broom shed?”

Palmer nodded, perched on a stool next to Harry. “That’s right. Professor Dumbledore can’t figure out how someone outside of the teams and staff got in, charmed and transfigured the branch into the Firebolt and left without leaving a trace.”

“But the person who did it would have had to know how to actually make a broomstick,” Ron pointed out.

“It’s Carlin, I know it,” Harry scowled. “It can’t be anyone else.”

“I’m really starting to think so,” Hermione tugged at her hair, “but we have to stay objective.”

“We’ve got your evidence,” Ron argued. “He’s a member of the staff.”

Having been read in on the Carlin situation, Palmer looked between the three with a thoughtful frown. “Does he have ties to a broom maker?”

“That’s a good point,” she pounced on the idea. “If he is, then Professor Carlin’s the one behind this. And all the other incidents since the year started.”

“I bet if Tony were here he would have figured something out,” Ron huffed before remembering Palmer and how that would have sounded.

“I agree,” the Morgue Assistant smiled knowingly at him. “Tony’s more trained at this kind of thing than I am, huh? I’m afraid that I don’t really know much, except to get your facts and check them. If you had a notebook like Tony’s always carrying,” he added, “then you could write down that the suspect would need extensive knowledge of broom making and stuff like that.”

“I still think it’s Carlin,” Harry muttered. “Staff can have access, too.”

“But thanks for the idea, Agent Palmer,” Hermione smiled warmly at Tony’s friend.

“You can call me ‘Palmer’, I told you before.”

Palmer stuck around for lunch before leaving to return back to the States and the Trio joined their House in celebrating their newest win.

**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From what I understand, Seekers are the only players who can go for the Snitch. In this universe, Snitches only recognize a Seeker's touch and - as I have yet to hear anything about two players catching a Snitch at the same time - if a Seeker is one of the two players, then it is a legal move. 
> 
> This will most likely never happen - if at all -, unless you are Harry Potter and all manners of things happen around you.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> One of my resolutions is more updates to both this story and the rest of the series. What's yours?

November passed slowly, but with no word from Tony.

“I hope his case gets finished soon,” Ron scowled one Tuesday afternoon before Hogsmeade weekend.

“Tell me about it,” Harry ruffled his hair. Being out of touch with Sirius was one thing, but he’d gone into this year expecting to be in contact with Tony, not worrying about him.

A whine came from the nearby red pillow, making Hermione smile slightly. “Don’t worry, Agent,” she assured. “Tony really is the best Agent out there.”

“He’ll probably be done by Christmas,” Ron piped up, trying to cheer everyone. “Bet you he comes strolling through Hogsmeade or – or the Great Hall and laughs at us for worrying.”

“Of course he will,” Hermione nodded eagerly. “You know he wants us to have faith in him. So faith we will have.”

“If you say so,” Harry leaned back against his bed.

Ron sighed as he studied his best friend before glancing at Agent. “Hey, Agent,” Ron chewed his gum. “You want to come to Hogsmeade with us again, or stay with AJ?”

The First Year Hufflepuff and her friends had been on alert about another attempt on her life and she’d confessed to Harry about being worried about him going to Hogsmeade again, leaving her alone.

Having given up on trying to convince her to trust the teachers to do their jobs ( “And look how that’s turned out for you!” He had nothing to say in response.), Harry had offered to leave Agent with her, but AJ didn’t seem like she could make her mind up about that.

Her Ravenclaw friend – the Trio had taken to calling the triplets by House since that was easier – had waved him off, reassuring him that they were studying up on their spells and wouldn’t let AJ get cornered by anyone they didn’t approve of. That had led to the quartet of First Years compiling a list of who they didn’t approve of, which seemed like all of the staff and teachers and almost half of the students. Harry had left them to it.

Agent gave his most pathetic eyes at Hermione, nosing at the leash lying next to him on his pillow.

“I guess he’ll come with us, then,” Harry grinned, suddenly unable to wait to get going.

He got his wish soon enough, as Saturday dawned bright and early, a light dusting of snow on the ground.

“What in Merlin’s name did you do last night?” Hermione scowled at the three of them as they struggled out of bed. “I expected better from you, Harry. Ron and Agent are two entirely different matters.”

“Hey,” the redhead yawned. “We didn’t do anything. Not our fault we’re so tired.”

“We didn’t do anything, Hermione,” Harry rubbed his eyes. “We just finished some homework.”

“I always knew homework made you sick,” Ron deadpanned.

“It does not,” Hermione huffed. “But maybe you are coming down with something.”

“It can’t be because we’re not around Tony, though. We prepared for that,” Harry pointed out.

“Well, maybe it’s some regular kind of sickness,” Hermione told him. “The weather’s getting colder, you know.”

“Hermione,” Ron smirked, “what in Merlin’s name makes you think any sickness is ‘regular’ when it comes to us?”

“I hate to agree,” Harry shrugged.

Hermione just snapped at them to hurry and dragged Agent out by the leash.

The boys were well used to their friend’s mood swings, so they hurried to dress for breakfast before heading out to Hogsmeade.

They got to the village and hung out with some of the other students they met up with at various places.

Hermione paused at a newspaper stand to get the newest copy of the _Daily Prophet_ and sat down in front of Zonko’s with Agent as the boys perused the shop.

“Don’t you subscribe to the _Prophet_?” Ron questioned when he and Harry came out a half hour later.

“Oh, yes, but one of the other girls needed it,” she commented airily. “I can keep this one.”

“Hm,” Harry nodded thoughtfully. “Anything interesting?”

“Well,” she glanced up at him. “Remember the article on Halloween? About that murder? Well, this one looks to be related.”

Reading over her shoulder, Harry spied the article in question and had to admit that there were parallels between one and the other.

“Think they know each other?” Ron asked.

“The other one was Norman Fischer,” Hermione noted. “This one is Kyle Ventin. He wasn’t anyone important at the Ministry, either. He went to Hogwarts as well.”

“No Year, either, right?” Harry sighed. “Or House?”

“Would it matter, though?” Ron frowned at him.

“I feel like it should,” Harry shrugged. “On the other hand, at least Sirius isn’t a suspect anymore.”

“Yes, it’s strange,” Hermione chewed on her bottom lip. “How can they be completely sure that he wasn’t behind this? Or Mr. Fischer? I’m not saying it’s not a good thing, of course. But it is odd.”

“Says they’ve got another suspect,” Ron pointed at the line in question.

“But it really didn’t make sense that Sirius was a suspect in the first place,” Harry went on. “Remember that the killer had to have been let in?”

“Yes, they had to have been,” Hermione agreed. “No sign of struggle here, either. So, it had to have been someone that they both knew.”

Ron tilted his head. “Did you keep the other article?”

“Of course, I did,” she huffed. “I thought it interesting and decided to keep an eye on things to see what else they said about Sirius. But there’s been nothing else except this one.”

“Wonder why they’re keeping it so quiet,” Harry piped up. “Don’t they usually have this stuff plastered all over the place?”

It was true and Hermione didn’t know quite what to make of it, either. But there was apparently something about these two murders that no one wanted leaking out into the public.

They were thinking about that when Agent suddenly started barking and straining at the leash Hermione had draped the end to over her wrist.

The Trio immediately looked out to scan the crowd and found Jimmy Palmer waving at them as he made his way toward them.

“Palmer? What are you doing here?” Harry smiled widely before a thought occurred to him and the smile dropped off his face.

“It’s not Tony, is it?” Hermione wrung her hands as she stood, Ron standing next to his two friends with the newspaper in hand.

“Oh, no, it’s not,” Palmer smiled reassuringly. “I was just here for personal reasons. It’s Thanksgiving back home, you know. That’s a holiday for us Americans.”

“And you miss Tony and decided to come see us, right?” Hermione relaxed, giving him a hug. Harry and Ron looked at each other, but decided that Hermione was more than capable of picking up on these things and took her word on it.

“Pretty much,” Palmer smiled slightly, ducking his head. “I was actually hoping you would be in town. Do you guys want to eat something?”

“Let’s go to Honeyduke’s,” Ron suggested. “You look like you could use some sweets.”

“I guess I could. And a butterbeer, too,” he said hopefully.

As they found themselves in the sweet shop, Palmer remembered his last visit and turned to Harry. “Any more word on what happened last time I was here?”

“They aren’t giving us information,” Ron huffed.

“I wouldn’t expect them to,” Palmer shrugged.

“We haven’t heard anything, anyway,” Hermione sighed. “Nothing substantial.”

“I’m going out to sit with Agent,” Harry told them. “Ron, could you - ?”

“No problem, mate,” the redhead immediately started moving toward the sweets that Harry was fond of as his friend left them to sit with his Godfather.

The black dog was lying nearby, having been tied to a post, and perked up when Harry approached.

“Hey, Agent,” he sighed, unhooking the Animagus and taking him to a nearby bench. “Sorry I’ve been so worried about Tony,” he went on, smiling as Sirius snuggled close to him. “We’ve grown attached to him and we worry. You wouldn’t believe some of the things his team’s let happen to him. He’s off on an undercover case right now and his Muggle team doesn’t know a thing. He doesn’t need this on top of the other undercover case. He’s still dealing with the fallout.”

They waited for another twenty minutes, chatting with different people who stopped by for a minute, and stood as the others came out with their bags.

“Let’s go get something hot,” Palmer urged, leading them on. “I need to go do some Christmas shopping while I’m on this side of the pond, as you like to say.”

“We’ll need to start, too,” Hermione nodded in agreement. They started talking about some Herbology things as Ron escaped to walk next to Harry and Agent.

“I feel kind of sorry for Tony,” Ron muttered as they went. “Especially with that one.”

“I like Palmer,” Harry shrugged. “He’s trustworthy.” Agent whuffed in agreement.

They were passing by a group going the opposite direction and Harry was lazily scanning them when he did a double take.

“Harry?” Ron frowned at him. “What?” he craned his neck to see what had caught his friend’s eye.

“Nothing, I – nothing,” he shook his head.

“Harry…”

“Palmer? What is it?” the boys looked up ahead where Palmer had turned toward them with a thoughtful frown.

“I could swear I saw him before,” Palmer tilted his head with a frown.

“Who?” Hermione looked from him to the retreating group and back.

“The wizard with the dark blue tie,” Palmer pointed half-heartedly. “I know him from somewhere.”

“I thought it was just me,” Harry sighed.

“Where have _you_ seen him before?” Hermione rounded on him.

“I don’t know. I’m just sure I saw him before.”

Harry and Palmer frowned at each other for a minute before shrugging.

“Maybe we saw him at the Quidditch match,” Palmer suggested.

“That could be it,” Ron scratched the back of his head.

Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to let it go for now, the group headed in to the warmth of the Three Broomsticks and settled at a table.

“So, Ron,” Palmer smiled easily. “Anything interesting in the paper? I just noticed that you stuffed it in your pocket and didn’t ball it up and toss it like other people would have done.”

“Have you read the _Prophet_ before?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Not exactly. Bits I pick up from places.”

Once they got their drinks and snacks to tide them over until lunch a little bit later, Palmer ate a fry. “I know I said that I’d tell you if I heard anything about Tony, but I really haven’t,” he smiled apologetically. “Whoever ordered him undercover has him in deep.”

Hermione could see the worry in his eyes, so she reached over and squeezed his arm. “Like you said, Tony is one of the best you’ve ever come across.”

“Yeah, well,” Palmer shifted uncomfortably. “It’s just… someone said something and I got nervous and almost set one of Abby’s machines on fire the other day. Merlin, I just want this case over and him home,” he scrubbed his face.

“We do, too,” Harry smiled wryly. “More than you know.”

Palmer sighed. “At least you guys don’t bother me for details. Everyone on the team has ideas about it, but none of them are getting close. I should have just done what Dr. Mallard did and start talking to him aloud. Says it helps him work through this, knowing that Tony has someone thinking about him. Dr. Mallard told me that we should all take a minute to talk as if Tony were right in front of us. Doing that, he says, makes it easier to bear and the time will pass by in no time before he’s back with us.”

“That makes him sound already dead,” Hermione looked down, her voice small.

“But that doesn’t mean that he might not hear anything,” Palmer rushed to assure. “You never know, Dr. Mallard sometimes talks aloud to him and it seems like no time before Tony comes strolling through the door. There was this one time some years ago that Tony disappeared for days. No one knew where he went, but he came back almost a week later.”

“Did he say where he was?” Ron wanted to know, sipping his drink.

Palmer frowned for a minute, thinking. “No,” he said slowly. “But he acted off the week he came back. I always thought it was because of the whole thing with Director Sheppard, but I was never sure.”

“Acted off?” Hermione frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Something really seemed to be eating him and he was always gazing off into space. But I remember one of the team’s cases had them going into a maze-like crime scene and he would just refuse to step foot in it. Nothing anyone said or did made him go.”

“It wasn’t last year, was it?” Hermione frowned, an idea tugging at her.

“No, it was… you would have been in your Fourth Year, I remember, because he had gone to the Quidditch World Cup during the summer.”

The Trio stared at each other.

‘Tony was there during the Third Task?’ Harry’s green eyes darted around as he thought it over. He did remember some vague impressions, but nothing clear after he’d been taken out of the maze.

Neither he nor Hermione noticed that Ron didn’t seem as surprised as he should have been.

After a half hour, Palmer had to run and the Trio journeyed to the Shrieking Shack to just relax. Strange thought, to be sure, but they couldn’t help relaxing there.

Ron pulled out the newspaper and folded it to read the article again. “What do you reckon makes this seem so interesting?”

“I was stuck on that, too,” Hermione admitted. “I don’t know. It’s like with Adrienne’s diary, isn’t it? Like you should have no reason to want to hang on to something or have it catch your eye, but it ends up happening and you don’t want to lose it for some reason.”

“Maybe we just haven’t found the reason, yet,” Harry pointed out.

“But what in the world would be the reason for hanging on to a little girl’s diary that she probably doesn’t even remember by now or two newspaper articles about two Ministry employees that have probably never met and have nothing in common but the school they went to?”

That was the question, wasn’t it.

Harry looked up at the sky, toying with Agent’s lead. “It looks like it’s going to snow.”

Agent sat next to him, watching Ron and Hermione follow Harry’s gaze.

“Yeah,” Ron nodded. “Well, let’s get lunch.”

“Then I would like to go shopping for Christmas presents,” Hermione turned to lead them back. “And then, I suppose we should read another diary entry before finishing homework.”

There didn’t seem to be any rush to finish the diary, so they were enjoying the mystery while they could and before they eventually solved it. As they always did.

So, for now, they would wait to solve the mystery surrounding the diary and figuring out the connection between the articles, and live in the moment.

Because for whatever reason, the diary and articles were there to stay.

As for the articles, the reason would become clear soon enough.

And as for the diary…

In the years to come, there would be times where they wished they had _never_ found it.

**


	21. Chapter 21

December brought snow deep enough to bury Hagrid as he made his way around the grounds.

The Care of Magical Creatures classes were strictly theoretical instead of practical and no one was happier with that than Ron.

“Take a look at this, then,” he shoved his book under Harry’s nose. “It’s a good thing we aren’t taking care of it.”

“We wouldn’t be taking care of it, anyway,” Hermione frowned at him from across the table in the Common Room before dinner. “It’s more than likely found in warmer climates.”

Agent had decided to tag along with Neville and Ginny as they went to their Herbology study group and Harry looked out of the window to see snowflakes falling from the sky.

“I hope Tony’s doing alright,” he said aloud.

Since Palmer ran into them on their last Hogsmeade visit, he’d taken to sending little notes and updates on how things were going back in the States. Unfortunately, there was no word from Tony, but the Trio still held hope of the Italian finding a way to contact them.

“He’s fine, Harry,” Hermione assured. “We would know if he wasn’t.”

“How d’you reckon that?” Ron frowned at her. “I mean, besides the obvious?”

“Well, remember what happened when Harry was hit with Crucio?” Harry still shivered at the feeling of incredible pain. “Tony felt it, right? So, it only stands to reason that we would know if Tony was in any kind of danger.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know that for sure,” Harry pointed out. “Tony’s Italian. They’re supposed to feel things more intensely than anyone else, especially with the people they adopted into their family.”

Ron leaned his head in a hand and sighed. “I bet it’s something that happens like it did to Fred and George once. It was before First Year, I remember, and one of them had twisted their wrist. At first, I thought they were playing around, but every time I saw them, it was like one didn’t realize that they were holding their uninjured wrist the same way that the other did.”

“Muggle twins sometimes have idiosyncrasies like that, too,” Hermione mused. “How, when one gets hurt, the other feels it.”

“It works with triplets, too,” the Trio looked up to see AJ smiling slightly at them.

“Hullo,” Ron raised a hand. “Haven’t seen you lurking up here for a while.”

“Yeah. Um, actually, I came to return Hermione’s newspaper,” she held up the older witch’s copy.

“Oh, thanks, AJ,” Hermione smiled widely. “I was waiting for it. Did you see anything interesting?”

“On page 8,” she shrugged. “Other than that, not much else.”

“So, you found what you were looking for?”

“I think so,” she stayed a few more minutes – mostly watching the snow fall – before heading back to her three friends in a corner.

“Page 8, huh?” Hermione flipped to the page, curious to know what AJ could possibly find interesting and spent a few minutes perusing the page. “Oh,” she blinked. “Harry, Ron, here’s another one.”

They looked up and blinked as she folded the paper so that they could read the article she pointed to.

**_Serial Killer Strikes Again_ **

_John Lighten is the latest victim of the so-called Ministry Killer._

_You may recall, not so long ago, two other victims having been found. Norman Fischer and Kyle Ventin both died in the same way. In both cases, no signs of struggle were found, completely discrediting the theory that Sirius Black – the only convict known to have ever escaped Azkaban and is still on the run – is the perpetrator._

_Black – convicted for the killings of thirteen Muggles and three Magical folk – has been discounted as being the Ministry Killer because of the lack of motive involved. There, however, is another suspect that Aurors are searching for. Unfortunately, they are withholding the identity of this suspect as it appears that there might be international implications to an already fragile relationship._

_Updates are ongoing as information is received and processed. Stay tuned._

“An international suspect?” Harry shook his head. “Why those three? What’s the motive?”

“All good questions,” Hermione sighed. “Plus, the information isn’t being as projected as it could be, so it may be that someone is trying to downplay the murders.”

Ron leaned back in his chair. “Reckon Lighten went to Hogwarts, too?”

“Maybe.”

Hermione tilted her head as she scanned the rest of the page. “I don’t see why AJ could possibly be interested in any of these other articles,” she frowned.

“My experience with AJ,” Harry shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if there was something there she was interested in. I don’t know her well enough to pick.”

The Trio pondered over the newest article as they went down to dinner.

Incredibly – though Harry honestly had no idea why he would think otherwise - , no one at all seemed to be talking about anything even remotely related to the ‘Ministry Killer’.

“It’s not front page news,” Hermione dished some peas onto her plate. “And the articles are spaced well enough that no one would ever be able to connect them if they weren’t already keeping track of them.”

“I guess so,” Ron lifted a shoulder. “But maybe that’s why someone didn’t put it on the front page. So maybe this is deliberate.”

“It just goes back to not panicking anyone,” she looked around. The students didn’t look at all panicked as they dug in to their dinners and joined conversations about gossip and whatnot.

Harry sighed and glanced around, only to see AJ heading in their direction with an odd look on her face. “Hi, AJ. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Have you talked to Hagrid?” she paused next to the friends. “He didn’t look at all well.”

“Okay, I’ll bite,” he smiled slightly. “Why would you be concerned about Hagrid more than any other teacher?”

“He’s someone’s ally,” her tone sounded like she thought he knew that. “I know what the score is. But, really. Maybe he’ll feel better if you talked to him, after dinner. He’s really not that bad. I can’t fault him for being an ally, so I don’t have much of anything against him. Besides, it doesn’t seem like he can keep a secret, can he?” she gave them a smile and moved on.

“I still don’t know what to make of that one,” Ron glanced at Harry, who tilted his head thoughtfully.

“But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a point. You know, I haven’t talked to Hagrid in a while. Let’s see him before we go back to the Common Room.”

“Yes,” Hermione nodded. “He didn’t look anything other than healthy when I saw him this morning, but he could be coming down with something.”

Directly after dessert, the Trio found the half-giant in the entrance hall and he didn’t look all that well.

“Hagrid!” Ron beamed. “How are you, mate?”

“Oh, fine, fine,” he smiled slightly. “And the three of ya? Not seen you three in some time outside of class, but I guess I can un’erstand.”

“Hagrid,” Hermione smiled up at him. “Are you feeling alright?”

Hagrid looked down at her with watery eyes. “Well, if you must know… Got word of a friend’s passin’ and, well…”

“We’re so sorry to hear that.”

“An’ it’s not just Johnny, either. It was Norm and Ky… and who knows who else.” He took out his handkerchief and blew his nose.

“Hagrid,” Harry tilted his head, giving no outward indication of recognition. “When did your friends go to school?”

Hagrid smiled slightly and huffed a laugh. “Well, a’ course Arthur ‘n’ Molly must’ve told you. No, I’ll be fine. You three run along and don’ worry. But, Ron, it seems ta me tha’ ya might want ta talk ta Professor Carlin. ‘e don’ seem like the news is sittin’ well wit’ ‘im, either.”

“Of course, Hagrid,” Hermione nodded.

They waved him off and wordlessly headed to the library. Without stopping, Hermione led them to the yearbooks near the very back of the library.

Once there, Ron reached out and grabbed the yearbook containing his parents’ graduating class. The Trio settled down on the floor and opened it to the index.

“Look for Ventin,” Hermione said quietly, running her finger down the page.

“There he is,” Ron pointed at the name. The Trio looked at each other. Kyle Ventin – Hufflepuff - had gone to school with Ron’s parents and Professor Carlin. They looked up John Lighten – Ravenclaw - and found him in his Sixth Year. Norman Fischer – Gryffindor - had graduated with Carlin, Molly and Arthur.

“So they went to school around the same time,” Hermione noted, her tone still subdued. Harry couldn’t believe that they found the ‘Ministry Killer’s victims, all of whom went to Hogwarts together.

They were going to need to keep a closer eye on this case. It was sort of suspicious that three articles that they couldn’t seem to let go of all had a connection to each other, but if the connection was the school that they’d gone to, that meant that every Ministry employee was in danger.

That meant that Mr. Weasley was in danger.

“Okay, let’s think,” Hermione looked from one to the other. “Kyle, Norman and John all went to school with Professor Carlin and Ron’s parents. Could it be that the Ministry Killer is specifically targeting those that these three went to school with?”

“You mean, is my dad next?” Ron swallowed.

“But wait,” Harry held up a finger. “We don’t know if the Ministry Killer is choosing people at random or something.”

“Some coincidence,” Ron muttered.

“No, Harry’s right,” Hermione breathed deeply. Letting it out, she continued, “We honestly don’t know if the victims are being picked and if they are, we don’t know what criteria they could possibly be matching up to. They weren’t in the same House and one of them wasn’t in the same Year. There has to be another connection.”

Hermione was right. They needed something else to go on.

It could be that Mr. Weasley wasn’t actually in danger. And the ‘Ministry Killer’ was an international suspect, so…

But just in case, they would keep track of future victims and see if they matched up with those who had gone to school with the others. At this point, without actually getting their hands on files or information, there was nothing else they could do.

**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's not much, either. 
> 
> One of the best things about being an author is that you can stick little things in the story that only makes sense to you until you reveal all of it at a later date. 
> 
> On a completely unrelated (maybe? maybe not?) note, have you been keeping up with BBC's Sherlock?


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I know it's late. I'm sorry! It's just been ridiculous, but I'm almost done with Sixth Year. I have a lot already written and will type as soon as I finish the story. 
> 
> I just wanted to remind you about the side series Summer Contacts: Revelations, which will be important as soon as I actually get those things written. I am not leaving this series, I just have a lot planned and I just broke through a huge Writer's Block to finish the story. 
> 
> I will eventually start the sequel, Hermione's Day Out - with Tony and Sherlock, before writing some Revelations stories. Please continue to be patient while I get things in motion, but - on the bright side - this is already a long story even before I finish it. The groundwork has been laid for 'The Secrets of Hogwarts' and I honestly can't wait to start writing it.
> 
> First, though, I have a lot to get through. 
> 
> Including the rest of the 300 plus pages of this monster. 
> 
> Please enjoy the double post and thank you so much for kudos, reviews, bookmarks, subscriptions and generally hanging around. We will get through this.
> 
> If the coming Fall Semester doesn't finish me off first.

* * *

 

 

In the days leading up to Hogsmeade weekend and the Winter Holidays, the Trio handled DA meetings, classes and its accompanying mountain of homework, a rather invigorating snowball fight encompassing a good crowd, four more ‘accidents’ and found two more ‘Ministry Killer’ victims that matched up as also having went to school with the others, though not necessarily being in the same Year as each other.

“The only way I can see that the Ministry Killer is picking off victims,” Hermione ran a hand through her hair, “is that they’re using a yearbook to do it. I just don’t see why it had to be all these men who apparently didn’t really get along that well.”

There had been several portraits – as well as Hagrid and some of the School Ghosts – who were very helpful in filling in details about what the victims were like during their school years.

“They worked at the Ministry and went to school with my parents,” Ron threw his hands up.

“But they’re all men,” Harry pointed out.

“Okay, all men who work at the Ministry and went to school with my parents.”

“But none of this explains why they were killed,” Hermione frowned. “They couldn’t just be picked randomly. There has to be some reason the Killer wanted to murder them.”

“Unless this ‘international’ bloke is a psycho,” Ron shrugged. “Then you have to wonder why he doesn’t go after just any Ministry bloke.”

“Maybe the Killer is a woman,” Harry mused.

The Trio sat nearest the doors as they finished breakfast. Agent had gone ahead with Ginny, who promised to keep a close eye on him, and they would all meet up after lunch.

“That may be true,” Hermione nodded thoughtfully. “But I really want to think it’s a man.”

The boys nodded in agreement.

They finished breakfast and headed out to the village of Hogsmeade. Since the Trio were all staying for the holidays – due to Mrs. Weasley wanting to spend some time with Fleur Delacour and her family - , they’d decided that they would wait until that moment to get each other’s Christmas presents.

Splitting up, they went to different shops so that they couldn’t know what the other two had gotten.

It had been a stroke of genius for Harry to ask Ginny if she wouldn’t mind taking Agent for a few hours. The Trio had all decided that they were going to get Sirius something and it would have been difficult to pull one over on the Animagus if he was constantly being handed off to one of them.

They still carried their radios – and pocket knives after hearing about one ‘accident’ in particular, though they had yet to have another ‘accident’ happen to them – and checked in with each other every twenty minutes.

Harry was just perusing a shelf of fairly priced knickknacks when he spotted that strangely familiar wizard, the same one that Palmer had admitted to recognizing.

Ducking down, he decided to take a closer look and eased his way over, making sure that he wasn’t spotted.

As Harry hunkered down behind a bookcase, he narrowed his eyes and took in the middle-aged older man.

He seemed like just any customer, but Harry could clearly tell that there was a tension in his fit frame. The man had black hair and brown eyes and didn’t seem to be happy about something in his notebook. Actually, his stance reminded Harry somewhat of –

‘Of course! So, _that’s_ where I’ve seen him!’ Harry smiled victoriously as he finally remembered his trip to the Post Office on Halloween to send a message to Tony. There had been a wizard that had almost run him over and it was the same one he and Palmer had both recognized last month.

But, if Palmer had also seen him before, then that meant… what, exactly?

Not wanting to chance a discovery, Harry quickly moved away. It looked like the man was absorbed in his notebook, anyway.

Who was he? Was he in Hogsmeade for business or pleasure? How had Palmer seen him?

Harry sighed as he slipped out of the door. He wouldn’t be getting answers today.

He met up with some others at a different store and pushed his thoughts about the mysterious wizard off into a corner of his mind to look at later.

An hour later, he met up with Ron to get something for Hermione – as the both of them still didn’t have any idea what girls wanted – and found themselves in a clothing section.

Harry had already gotten something for his best mate and his Godfather, but not for Tony and Hermione had made him and Ron promise to wait until she rejoined them before even thinking of what the Italian would like.

“She does know that Tony probably won’t be getting it, right?” Ron told Harry as they rifled through all manners of girls’ clothes.

“Well, next year we’ll be able to get him two presents,” Harry shrugged. “Or find out when his birthday is and give it to him, then.”

“Yeah,” Ron nodded thoughtfully. He glanced around and sighed. “Maybe we should have asked Tony about how to shop for Hermione when we had the chance.”

“I don’t think he needs another cloak,” Harry absently looked through some skirts before giving up. “I really don’t know if getting Hermione clothes is a really good idea. She’s more into books, remember?”

“If Tony can get her a shirt, then we can, too,” Ron told him.

“But that’s Tony. He can give anyone anything and they’ll fall in love with it.”

Harry wandered into the accessories area and found himself looking at hair ribbons. Struck with an idea, he went looking through the selection and was actually surprised to find what he was looking for.

Ron wanted to know what he was hiding, but Harry only told him to wait for dinner.

Selection made for Hermione, the boys set off to find her to look for Tony’s present.

When they finally found her, she wasn’t alone.

“Ron!”

“Bloody hell,” he winced as Professor Carlin looked around to smile widely at them.

“I had no idea that he was here,” Hermione grimaced apologetically.

“Well, I had some business in town and decided to see if I could find you,” Carlin explained. “I’ve invited your sister to lunch if you’re interested. You could join us, however, I would appreciate it if one of your two friends took charge of your pet.”

Harry felt his heart speed up. They couldn’t take the chance that someone would recognize Agent for who he really was. “Where’s Ginny, now, sir?”

“Hm? Ah, well, I left her and your pet with some of her friends. You have some time, Mr. Potter. Now, I have a few more errands to run, so I shall be seeing you in a bit, Ron.”

“Don’t leave me alone with him!” Ron hissed, grabbing onto Harry’s arm as Carlin disappeared from sight.

“Ginny will be there, won’t she?”

“Yeah, but she seems to _like_ him!”

“Ron,” Hermione frowned at him. “If we are right in thinking that’s he’s after Harry, there is no reason that he should be after you.”

“He’ll kidnap me and make Harry go out to the forest and get me, like during the Second Task, remember? And then, when Harry least expects it – ”

“He will not kidnap you, he’s after Harry.”

“And what makes you think he won’t use us to get to him?”

“Whether or not, Carlin is out to get me,” Harry stepped between them, “I don’t like the idea of any one of us alone with him, never mind Ginny.”

“Well, he obviously thinks I’m going to eat lunch with him,” Ron worried his bottom lip. “We need to figure out how to get us and Ginny away from him.”

“He had a point, though,” Hermione pointed out. “There is some time between then and now. Let’s go find Tony’s present and then we’ll figure out what to do.”

Harry wasn’t sure he had the mental capacity to do them both at once, but he gamely followed the other two as they headed off.

Once they found and purchased Tony’s Christmas / birthday present, it was almost a half hour until Ron had to go.

Ginny and Agent met up with them ten minutes later, the younger redhead frowning hard.

“Have you heard from Professor Sprout?” she asked them, kneeling down to bury her fingers in Agent’s fur.

“No,” Hermione frowned. “Why?”

“She asked me if I’d heard from Tony,” she lifted a shoulder.

“Why would she ask that?”

“Don’t know. I asked her why she thought Tony would contact me instead of you three. I haven’t heard from him, anyway, if that’s what you want to know.”

“But will you tell us if you do hear something?” Harry requested.

“I still think that he would go to you all first, but sure.”

They were just about to start walking to where Ginny had been instructed to bring Ron when Carlin came tearing from that direction.

“Ah, Ron, Ms. Weasley, I do apologize, but something’s just come up. We should reschedule,” he smiled apologetically as he rushed past. “Apologies, again!”

The Trio breathed in relief as Ginny looked on with a bemused expression.

“That’s alright,” she handed Agent over to Harry. “I was going to go look for Rosslyn anyway. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, Gin,” Hermione waved before smiling widely at the boys. “Well, then. Who’s up for lunch?”

Now that they didn’t need to worry about Carlin, they all found themselves hungry.

Purchases – and Agent – in hand, the friends cheerfully headed down the street toward the Three Broomsticks, curious to know what had called Carlin away, but not so much so as to not be grateful for it.

“You don’t have a bag,” Ron frowned at Hermione as they left some time later.

“Well, I don’t want to have you snooping through, so I ordered them. They should be ready to be picked up tomorrow. Since we’ll be here anyway.”

They were going to walk their other friends down to the Express when it came for those returning home for the holidays.

“I never thought of that,” Harry admitted.

“But,” Ron grinned, “we won’t have to worry about _you_ snooping.”

“Agent, on the other hand,” Hermione smiled down as the dog looked up at his name. “I know you like snooping in things you’re not supposed to. I’m going to have to hide your presents in my trunk as soon as we get back.”

Sooner or later, their travels took them back to the Shrieking Shack.

“If you think about it,” Hermione smiled slightly. “This is when our lives started turning around.”

“Seems like everything happened in Third Year,” Harry smiled, thinking back. “I met Tony, then Remus and Sirius…”

“And it’s been one thing after another ever since,” Ron grinned. “No rest for us.”

“But, Good Merlin, I would at least like to keep up with the homework and our classes,” Hermione huffed amidst the boys’ laughter.

It was when they were headed away from the Shack that Hermione realized that Sirius was trying to herd her toward the path leading to the cave he had once frequented.

“Agent? What is it?” Harry caught on as well. The dog wasn’t in any hurry, but he was definitely trying to get them going in that direction.

Ron shrugged when the other two looked at him. “Let’s see what he’s going to do,” he suggested.

All of them curious, they let the Animagus lead them for a while until Harry recognized the place that they’d found the injured wizard months before.

“Why are we back here?” Ron put his hands on his hips as he looked around the white landscape in front of him.

Agent strained against his leash and let out a bark, wanting to be unhooked for some reason. Hermione glanced at the other two before crouching down and unhooking Agent from his leash. The big dog immediately took off toward the spot that the Trio had found him in and sniffed around for a few minutes before seeming to remember that they were still watching from the path and barked at them to come closer.

“What is it, Agent?” Hermione got her wand out and followed the boys as they cautiously went closer to where the dog was still sniffing the ground. They blinked as he went farther into the trees, still sniffing around.

Twenty minutes later, Agent seemed to have found what he was looking for as he yipped and started digging into the snow with alarming vigor.

Dropping to their knees before him, the Trio also started digging, not sure what they were going to find, but curious all the same.

Not more than five minutes later, they uncovered…

A cellphone.

Harry stared at it for a minute before reaching down into the small dug hole and extracting it, frowning as he studied it.

“That… looks like… Tony’s,” Hermione reluctantly voiced.

That, it did. At least, from what they’d seen of it. Their Italian friend hadn’t much use for it in the Magical world and had told them that he’d thought about making it magical-run, but hadn’t had the time – nor effort, it seemed – to do it. It was almost like he associated his mobile with work and he didn’t want to think about work when on the vacation he’d made his visits to be.

Harry flipped it open, but Hermione had handled mobiles before and tried to start it up, but it just wouldn’t.

“I think the battery’s gone,” Harry bit his lip.

“It is,” Hermione confirmed. “But, if this is Tony’s, then what’s Sirius doing with it?”

The Trio looked at each other before turning confused looks on the dog next to them. He nudged Hermione’s hand and barked.

“Sirius,” a thought suddenly occurred to Ron, “did you see Tony before we found you?”

The dog looked around for a minute before snapping up a nearby stick and pushing it around until the stick was pointing at them.

“Is that a ‘yes’?” Hermione tilted her head, smiling as he placed a paw on the stick and barked.

“So, you saw Tony before?” Ron asked again. Agent placed a paw on the stick again.

Harry took the phone from Hermione and held it in front of him. “Sirius, were you attacked?” That was another yes. “Tony was there, too?” Yes. Harry looked at the other two.

Hermione tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully. “Did you pick it up, or was it given to you?” Yes.

“Remember, Tony’s undercover,” Ron told her.

“So, that must mean they met when Sirius was on his assignment,” she nodded. “Makes sense. Sirius, is there something on this phone that Tony put there in regards to his case?” Yes.

“Tony’s undercover. He finds Sirius or something and, what? Witnesses his attack?” Harry ruffled his hair. “And Tony tries to help, but his cover depends on it… so…”

“Maybe Tony bound Sirius’ magic and sent him here to protect him,” Ron suggested.

“And gave him his phone so that Sirius could protect it? And we would find Sirius, because we told Tony that we would be in Hogsmeade that day.” Hermione looked between them. “Is there a clue on here that Tony wants us to find?” Yes.

Tony must have put a clue on his phone – which he sent with Sirius – to give to the Trio about his case. He wanted them to help him with something and doing it on his phone was a way to make sure that Sirius could go back and get it when he felt that the coast was clear and he was with the Trio.

“Maybe he bound Sirius’ magic because he wanted to keep Sirius safe,” Hermione mused. “Or to keep him from blowing Tony’s cover. He knew we would find him and get him help instead of doing it himself.”

“It’s brilliant,” Ron grinned.

Harry nodded before turning back to Agent. “Tony’s okay, though, right?” Yes. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay,” he turned back to the others. “Tony’s obviously still undercover, because we found Sirius before he went on his case or around that time. We don’t know how deep undercover Tony is, so we can’t contact him directly. Maybe if we find out what Tony’s clue is, then we can send it along with Palmer.”

“But Sirius said that it’s on Tony’s phone,” Hermione stood. “It’s dead without battery.”

“Maybe Tony was counting on us to find it earlier,” Ron frowned. Agent barked at them and turned the stick so that it was pointing from side to side.

“He wasn’t,” Harry grinned.

“We have it now,” Hermione moved to re-clip Agent’s leash. “We can do what Tony needed us to do and that’s find the clue and send it along. But first, we have to either charge it or change it to magic.”

“I thought you were going to say to give up the phone, too,” Ron mused, getting up and brushing snow from his knees. Harry did the same.

“I thought of it,” she lifted a shoulder. “But I want to know what the clue is. Besides, it’s Tony’s phone. I would feel better if I had something of his with us. Then we could give it back when we see him.”

“Sure,” Harry agreed. “There has to be a reason that he told Sirius to bring us to it instead of someone more qualified. Right?”

“Tony trusts us to do right by him,” Ron wrapped an arm around Harry as they made their way back to first the village, then the school. “Plus, he knows that we won’t be able to let things go. He knows that. Probably reckons that someone else would get their hands on it and blow his cover.”

“Think it has connections in Hogsmeade?” Hermione looked back, Harry pocketing the phone. “But, I mean, we are the safest people that Tony can think of to send Sirius to.”

The Trio might be worried about Tony, but they now had something to do to help him come home. Sirius must have been told to wait until things had died down to get the Trio to the Italian’s phone.

“What would be easier?” Harry was anxious to get started with their friend’s task for them. “Charging the battery or switching it over to magic?”

“Well, ideally, charging it, but I wouldn’t know how to charge it anywhere here. I suppose we could ask Palmer about it, but we would have to also tell him about it. I would like to actually have the clue that Tony put in there before we do anything about it. So, I’ll be spending some time in the library trying to figure out how to change his battery from electric to magic. There’ll be a lot of opportunity, I expect.”

Asking someone about it would probably get them suspicious enough to snoop, but this was the Trio’s task and they wanted to see it through to the end.

Ron started laughing. “What do you want to bet that he knew we would worry when we found out about this assignment and gave us something case-related to do to take our minds off it?”

“Sounds like him,” Harry could readily admit that Tony wasn’t wrong. Tony would know and give them something to make them feel like they were helping instead of waiting around and letting their imaginations run away with them. And Sirius told them that Tony was safe. There was no hurry, just like with Adrienne’s diary.

But, they wanted Tony home, so they might want to start right away, though, not so much so as to attract unwanted attention.

“Even when I do manage to change the mobile over, it’ll be a few weeks, at least, until we get something,” Hermione told them.

“We should take our time with it,” Ron shrugged. “Tony’ll get word to us somehow if he wanted us to rush.”

“We shouldn’t rush, period,” Hermione countered. “This is a delicate matter, changing technology to do something that it wasn’t originally designed to do. I expect that to fully happen around the time that classes start up again.”

Tabling the discussion for later as they approached the steadily thickening crowd going back to school, the Trio joined a crowd of their Housemates.

Agent was by no means small, but he still kept between Harry and Hermione as they were swept by the crowd. Snowflakes started to fall when they were half there and became a steady downpour when they finally arrived at the school.

Everyone went to their Common Rooms before heading down to dinner, where there was an unusual bit of excitement going around.

Harry slipped into a seat beside Neville and Hermione and Ron sat across him, while Agent was invited to sit with the Ravenclaws, when Vince Muldoon turned to him.

“Did you hear about what happened earlier?”

“Not another accident,” Hermione frowned.

“No. Well, probably not what you’re thinking. Carlin’s office was in danger of burning,” he smiled widely. “I don’t know where he would be hiding lit candles, but one of them tipped over somehow and it was only luck that one of the Slytherins called out the alarm. If that fire had spread, who knows what would have happened. You know, there are quite a few things that are flammable in this school. Just be lucky it wasn’t a magical fire, huh?”

“Yeah,” Hermione nodded. When Vince turned away, she turned to Ron. “That must have been when he had to cancel lunch with you and Ginny.”

That was some coincidence.

Harry tilted his head thoughtfully. As coincidental as it was, the timing was even more interesting. To this day, he had no idea what made him look up and to the left, but he found himself looking at AJ, who was staring back at him. The small smile on her face and the sparkle in her grey eyes told him exactly what he wanted to know.

As much as he didn’t really believe that Divination was all that big of a deal, his Third Year had laid to rest any doubts he had about the existence of Seers. But, while Trelawney was something of a flake, AJ didn’t seem to be anything like her.

Then again, of course, it didn’t have to mean that she was a Seer. But Harry resolved to keep a close eye on her in the future to see if his suspicions would amount to anything.

He couldn’t be absolutely sure, but he thought back to other instances in the past year and had to wonder.

After dinner, the Trio went to their Common Room, Harry snagging AJ en route.

“Why’s she here?” Ron frowned as Harry went digging into the day’s purchases.

“Well, AJ’s going home for Christmas, so I thought I would give this to her now instead of tomorrow.” Ron and the girls watched him surface with a victorious grin and return to where they were standing in front of one of the fireplaces.

“Is that what you got at that one place?” Ron wrinkled his nose as Harry revealed his secret. “Hair ribbons?”

Hermione tilted her head slightly. “Well, they’re very pretty,” she offered.

AJ, on the other hand, stared with wide grey eyes as she studied the three different packs of ribbons offered to her.

One was a black and green pattern, another was a pastel blue and green and the last…

“You found more like it!” she beamed as she finally tore her eyes away from the familiar red and pink pack of ribbons to direct her grin at Harry, who shrugged.

“They evidently didn’t go out of style. I reckon they’re still making them. Plus,” he scratched the back of his head, “I hear that you still haven’t found the one you lost, so I decided to get you a replacement.”

“You didn’t have to,” she ducked her head, not realizing that Hermione and Ron turned wide eyes on each other at the gesture.

“Well, I wanted to,” Harry shrugged, slightly ill at ease. He opened the red and pink ribbons and took one out, tying the new one in the same place as the old one in AJ’s dark hair. AJ smiled widely at him, but gasped as he extracted another one and headed for Hermione.

“Harry?” brown eyes widened as he got closer. They moved between Harry and AJ. “What are you going to do with that?”

Harry reached out for a lock of Hermione’s own hair and tied the ribbon to it. “There,” he stepped back to admire it. “Well, AJ. What do you think?”

The Hufflepuff squealed and clapped, jumping up and down. “Now, you have two allies!”

Ron looked from one to the other. “What about me?”

AJ studied him thoughtfully before lighting up with an idea. “Harry, use the black and green one for Ron. That’s to be your ‘general’ ribbons, along with the other batch. For girls and boys.”

Ron and Hermione were staring at Harry with confusion, but he just shrugged at them. Remembering how AJ had explained to him, Harry dutifully retrieved said ribbon and gave it to Hermione.

“No, you can tie it,” AJ stopped him. “You start it. Then Ron puts a ribbon on the next girl and Hermione can put it on the next boy.”

Harry nodded before tying the ribbon on Ron’s wrist. “Just go with it,” he murmured to his bemused friend.

AJ beamed at the friends. “Your side is growing,” she smiled widely.

“I wonder about you,” Ron told her in no uncertain terms.

He and Hermione left soon after to go on their rounds, leaving Harry to walk AJ out of the Common Room.

“Oh, AJ,” Harry frowned thoughtfully, thoughts going back to earlier as they stood just outside of the entrance. “I don’t suppose you knew about the fire before anyone else, did you? It’s just that Carlin was about to invite Ginny and Ron to lunch and the timing seemed pretty suspicious.”

She just smiled. “So I made it in time, then,” she tilted her head, winked, then walked away.

**


	23. Chapter 23

* * *

 

“So, AJ set the fire?” Ron shook his head as they joined the crowd going toward Hogsmeade Station. “Don’t suppose she’s a Seer, do you?”

“Of course she’s not,” Hermione rolled her eyes. “They don’t exist.”

“Well, what do you call it, then?”

“Coincidence.”

Once they got to Hogsmeade Station, the Trio went their separate ways to say good-bye to their friends and Harry eventually found himself standing next to AJ.

“Hello, Harry,” she smiled up at him, giving no hint of what she had done yesterday or the confession she had made. “Happy Christmas.”

“Happy Christmas,” he repeated, smiling slightly. Vince joined them a minute later. “Are you going home, too, Vince?”

“Yup.”

“Better hurry, then,” AJ looked around. “The train is starting to load.”

“Oh, no, I’m not going back on the train,” he shook his head. “I live in Hogsmeade.”

“And you have a dorm?” Harry asked incredulously.

“Well, sure. Mum has a lot of other things to do, so it’s good to hang out with you lot. Would’ve missed the fun if I didn’t.”

“Not sure ‘fun’ would be the word,” Harry winced.

“Maybe not,” he agreed. “But it’s been exciting. And one year left, eh? Wonder what’s going to happen.”

“If we’re lucky, nothing,” he countered. Looking between them for a minute, he tilted his head. “So, what are your plans? Anything with family?”

“Well, it’s just me and Mum,” Vince shrugged. “We have friends we go visit for a few days before staying home for the remainder of the Holidays.”

“I don’t really know what Piper has planned,” AJ shrugged.

“Who’s Piper? Your sister?” Harry smiled slightly. He could just imagine an older AJ dragging the younger around in that bossy way that Ron’s brother Percy had, but in a way that made him think of the twins –

“No. She’s my Foster mother.”

“…”

“Yo, AJ!” one of the triplets called over to her. “Get your Hufflepuff self in gear!”

“Coming! Bye, Vince and Harry. Have a good Holiday.” She waved as she ran toward her friends, leaving the pair staring after her in stunned silence.

“… I was not expecting that,” Vince finally spoke after the Express faded from view.

“Not expecting what?” Ron wanted to know, him, Hermione and Agent sidling up next to them.

“You’ll have to ask AJ,” Harry shifted uneasily. He didn't want to tell what she probably didn't want known to many people.

Shrugging, Ron turned to Vince. “Are you staying then?”

“He lives in Hogsmeade,” Harry deadpanned.

“Well, we’ll just walk you home, then,” Hermione smiled, not batting an eyelash. Harry wondered if she knew all along. Ron, on the other hand, stared blankly.

Agent barked in agreement and started tugging Hermione down the street.

“Hey, d’you think Agent can sniff out the trail home?” Vince grinned. “Mum’s already taken my stuff. Plus, I’ve always wanted to see if a dog could track my scent.”

“Agent? What do you say?” Hermione asked. The black dog immediately started sniffing Vince for a good few minutes before putting his nose to the ground. The four followed him through the village for a good hour before stopping in front of a modest looking house.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Vince told them, bending down to ruffle Agent’s ears for a job well done. “I’ll try to visit on Christmas this year.”

“If you like,” Hermione gave him a hug. “We’ll look forward to it.”

“Why you reckon we don’t really know a lot of others in Gryffindor?” Ron questioned suddenly.

“Well, we have roommates that we’re close to, right?” Hermione pointed out. “That’s who we find ourselves spending time with and it’s only natural.”

“We’ll have to fix that one day,” Vince shrugged.

He had a point, though, Harry had to agree.

There were at least five other boys – including Vince – that Harry didn’t know all that well. Maybe it was time they started getting to know each other.

They waved Vince off before setting out for the main part of Hogsmeade.

“I hope Tony’s okay,” Harry ventured, watching Agent bat at some stray snowflakes. It looked like it was going to snow again this afternoon. “I mean, think Agent’s the reason why he hasn’t contacted us or anything?”

“What do you mean?” Ron frowned.

“Well, he would seem the type, wouldn’t he?” Hermione looked thoughtful as they crunched along in the snow. “Anything he could have been forced to do, he’d feel guilty.”

“Wait, you mean Tony’d feel guilty about keeping his cover?” Ron asked incredulously.

“Well, think about it,” Hermione told him. “He followed Director Sheppard’s orders, and he still feels guilty about it. Plus, he likes Snuffles, doesn’t he? That’s bound to make it worse. And he’s Harry’s godfather, besides. Tony knows how much Harry loves his Godfather and wouldn’t want him hurt.”

Ron thought about it as Harry watched Agent.

Since his Godfather had come to them, they’d talked many times about Tony, and Sirius would light up. He didn’t seem to have any kind of hard feelings toward Tony at all. So, if Tony really did have to attack him in order to keep himself from being discovered, Sirius completely understood and held no grudge toward him.

Plus, Tony had used Sirius to get them the mobile, didn’t he? And Sirius had – more or less – hinted that there was something on there that could help Tony.

“Hey, Hermione,” he glanced at her. “Any luck on Tony’s mobile?”

“So far, no,” she shook her head. “Actually, it’s kind of why I need to stop by the bookshop here in town. I don’t want to arouse suspicion with the teachers. My Muggle Studies class can only teach me so much.”

“Think Tony wants us to do this ourselves?” Ron had to ask. “He doesn’t want us to get a teacher involved?”

“Don’t you remember what Tony wrote in Fourth Year?” Hermione recalled. “He said that if he had to trust someone in the Magical world, we would be the first ones he turned to.”

Harry remembered that as well.

It had been after the Second Task when Tony’s letter had arrived. Looking back on it after what Tony had told them last year, it made more sense.

Tony had clearly needed to vent to someone and Harry remembered that the letter mostly talked about how people should trust their teammates and support them instead of being suspicious. Then Tony seemed to break his train of thought for a minute and wrote, ‘It’s really hard to find people you absolutely trust without question. If I need something done in a quiet fashion, I think I’ll turn it over to you three. At least I’m confident enough in you to know that you won’t purposely screw things up. Besides, you can always put your sneaky skills to good use.’

Tony had also told them that it’s always a good thing to have just a bit of Slytherin cunning inside. And right now, the Trio was taking his advice.

As they got closer to the familiar part of Hogsmeade, Hermione spied a newspaper stand that some of their Housemates were crowded around. “Wait here, would you?” she gave Agent’s leash to Harry before darting into the crowd.

“Doesn’t she have a subscription?” Ron frowned.

Agent suddenly barked and wagged his tail. Harry and Ron followed his gaze and greeted Jimmy Palmer as he stopped next to them.

“Always seem to be meeting you here, huh?” Palmer grinned widely.

“Looks that way,” Harry smiled warmly.

They made small talk as they waited for Hermione, who detached from the crowd with her nose buried in the paper.

“Anything interesting in there?”

“There’s been another one,” she started before registering who had spoken and looked up with wide brown eyes at the American watching curiously. "Oh, good morning, Palmer," she smiled slightly, glancing at Harry. 

“Another one what?” Palmer prompted.

“Robbery,” she shrugged. “There’s been a string of them recently. Project, you understand.” She stuffed the paper into her pocket and smiled at the American. “So, what brings you here?”

“Business meeting,” he shrugged. “So, you three want to get drinks?”

“Erm,” Harry glanced at Hermione. “We were actually going to the bookshop.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you,” he nodded.

Harry knew that they could try shaking him off, but for one thing, Palmer was a friend and he knew that they would all feel bad for doing it to him. On the other hand, however, Harry couldn’t help feeling uneasy about the other being there.

“I won’t be long,” Hermione assured, drawing the older wizard with them in the front of the group.

“Why would we let him hang out with us?” Ron quietly asked Harry.

“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “Something isn’t sitting right, but I just don’t know what it is.”

“With Palmer, you mean,” Ron glanced at him. “I got that, too.”

It wasn’t anything specific, but Palmer had an air about him that the boys picked up on. What it meant, though, they didn’t quite know.

Once they got to the shop in question, Hermione left the four to gather what she really needed to start working on Tony’s mobile phone.

Because she was an overachiever – her words, swear to Merlin -, no one would think twice if she had knowledge about the subject ahead of the rest of her Muggle Studies class, who would start learning about it after the Holidays.

Using the knowledge she would gain, Hermione would then be able to convert the mobile from using electricity to using magic, and once the battery charged would be able to see what clue Tony left them. But, again, she would have to do it carefully. No one needed to know about what the Trio was doing. This was their clue and Tony gave it to them.

As they waited, Harry noticed Palmer fidgeting slightly – like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t quite sure how to start – and was about to ask when he felt his leg vibrating.

“Ron,” Harry tapped his friend’s arm. “Can you hold Agent for a second? I need to go… look inside a shop,” he shrugged lamely. “Forgot a present for someone.” He left before anyone could come up with a response and ducked into a random antique shop. He hunkered down in an out of the way alcove and fished out his radio, flipping the dial to Hermione’s channel. “What did you need, Hermione?”

 _“Harry,”_ her voice came through loud and clear. _“You know that Neville is waiting for his grandmother to pick him up, right? He’s here with me now and I think you should hear what he has to say. Are you alone?”_

“Yeah.”

_“Good. We’ll tell Ron later. Here’s Neville.”_

_“Harry?”_

“Hey, Neville,” he greeted. “What’s wrong?”

_“Uh, earlier this morning, Professor McGonagall asked me if I’d heard from your friend Tony. I know you’ve been worried about him, but I saw Hermione and asked her why I would have heard from Tony. I would have told you if I did, but I don’t know why he would be talking to me in the first place. I mean, he’s nice and everything, but I only met him once or twice. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it, but Ginny said something about Professor Sprout asking her about Tony. And, Harry, Professor McGonagall didn’t seem like she was asking for the sake of asking, you know? Like – ”_

“ - she was digging for information,” Harry finished, a cold feeling filling him despite the shop’s warmth.

_“Exactly! Oh, uh, I’ve got to go, there’s Gran. Happy Christmas, Harry, and I hope you hear from your friend soon.”_

“Thanks, Neville,” he murmured absently. Once Hermione was back on the other end, he said, “There’s got to be a reason that Sprout and McGonagall want to know where Tony is, right? Professor Dumbledore asked me about him, too, remember?”

_“Harry, I don’t like this. The staff is starting to ask questions about our communications with Tony. Why? Tony’s supposed to be undercover… right?”_

“Unless… something’s happened,” Harry swallowed thickly. It was what they didn’t want to think about, but it’s the only thing that made sense.

 _“We have to believe he’s fine, Harry,”_ she insisted, sounding like she was also trying to convince herself. _“Until we start getting sick again –”_

“But that still wouldn’t mean anything,” he interjected. “Still got the tokens, don’t we? That would keep us from feeling the bond’s effects for a bit.”

 _“They would, yes,”_ Hermione breathed deeply to keep calm.

Harry didn’t know what to do.

From Ginny and Neville, Harry knew that the staff was asking about Tony and it was only a matter of time before the Trio was confronted. No one outside Agent and the Trio knew about the mobile and the clue it held. Anyone else and Tony could be compromised. This was not an option.

But the one thing that Harry knew without doubt was that they needed to get to the clue first.

“Hermione, let’s concentrate on the mobile, first. We need to figure out what clue is on it.”

_“Of course. I’ll get on that right away.”_

Deciding to wait until Ron was with them to talk further, Harry told Hermione that he would meet her outside before returning the radio to his pocket.

He bought a small lighthouse figurine because he’d said he was going to buy a present – though he wasn’t sure who he could possibly give it to – and returned outside to find Agent, Palmer, Ron and Hermione waiting for him.

The group crunched through the snow to the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer before they would go their separate ways. They settled in at a table nearest the back wall and put in their orders.

“Thanks for hanging out with me,” Palmer grinned. “It’s nice to know that I have friends here.”

“You and Tony are the only ones we know from America,” Hermione told him. “We have some other friends in France and Bulgaria.”

“Like Krum?” Ron grinned at her, referring to Viktor Krum, one of the other Champions from the Tri-Wizard Tournament.

“So,” Palmer leaned back in his chair after their waitress left their drinks. “Have you heard from Tony, by chance? I’ve been keeping an eye out, but no luck so far. I thought he would have managed to sneak word to you or something. But, I have been hearing some rumors going around the MNP that Tony might be on his way home in the future.”

“He is? Thank Merlin!” Hermione sagged in relief. “We haven’t heard a thing, but we’ve been worried sick and I know I’ll sleep better knowing he’s alright.”

Speaking of which…

“Er, hey, Palmer? You know something about being a Healer, right?” Harry rubbed the back of his neck, bare now without the scarf that was currently sitting next to his elbow. “We have a question about something and we’d rather not go to the Hospital Wing if we can help it.”

“Yeah,” Ron agreed. “Pomfrey will just want to keep us there and then we’ll be watched around the clock.” This, of course, would be bad, considering what they were planning to do.

Palmer straightened, that unsettling air that Harry had picked up on earlier disappearing in favor of curiosity. “Well, I’ll do what I can. What’s the problem?”

“What do you know about sleeping sicknesses?” Hermione asked. “I’ve tried looking in some books, but there’s really nothing I’ve seen that matches what we’ve been experiencing of late.”

Harry knew just how frustrated she was.

It was one thing to be worried about Tony and trying to keep an eye on Carlin, along with following the Ministry Killer - for whatever reason they were following the bloke – and reading Adrienne’s diary, besides. But on top of all that, the Trio – and sometimes Agent, as well – would wake up feeling unusually exhausted after getting what should have been a goodnight’s sleep.

Now that they had a Project to work on, they would need to be at the top of their game.

Palmer looked at them thoughtfully. “What kind of symptoms are we talking here?”

“Exhaustion, mostly,” Hermione shrugged. “Nothing too extreme, but we’ve been feeling tired when we shouldn’t and there’s no reason that I can see that would lead to it.”

Palmer sipped his drink. “Has anything been happening in your lives? Emotional distress, something like that?”

Ron shook his head. “Not that I know of,” he glanced at Harry and frowned meaningfully.

So, it wasn’t a side effect of the marriage bond. Would Tony not have said something about it if this was the case? It was the only thing that Harry could think of.

Actually, it couldn’t be the bond because they had the tokens with them. And it started pretty much since school began in September…

“Well, something has to be…” Palmer suddenly frowned. “What about Professor Carlin? Have things been too stressful with him? And I know you’re worried about Tony, but I honestly don’t think that would be the case.”

“You know what’s going on?” Hermione leaned forward. “What is it?”

Palmer crossed his arms on the table and leaned on them. “Well, in my opinion, your magic has been working to help keep you healthy. Emotional distress is about the only thing that can explain it. Feeling tired is the only symptom.”

“But it’s not all the time,” Hermione argued.

“It doesn’t have to be. You know, Tony had the same – ” he clammed up almost immediately. The Trio looked at each other.

“Palmer,” Hermione reached out a hand to place it on the American’s arm. “We understand that you’re just as worried about Tony as the rest of us. Maybe it’ll make you feel better if you talk about it.”

Palmer bit his lip and slowly shook his head from side to side. “It’s not… but…”

In a sudden moment of clarity, Harry remembered a flash of angry green eyes. “It’s about Kate, isn’t it?”

Palmer’s wide eyes shot up to meet his. “How do you - ?”

“Snape,” Ron straightened as realization dawned. “He said something about her and Tony got upset. It was during the summer, back at the Burrow.”

“What happened to Kate, Palmer?” Hermione softly asked.

They spent long silent moments as Palmer tried to tell them, but it was soon clear that it was not the time to ask.

“You know what? It’s fine,” Hermione finally spoke, laying a hand on his arm. “It’s close to the holidays and it’s obviously hurting you still.”

“Sorry, guys,” Palmer gave up. He used Ron’s offered napkin to wipe his eyes and blow his nose. “I can’t.”

“Maybe we should’ve waited to ask,” Ron murmured to Harry, who agreed. But, no matter how badly Harry felt about it, he couldn’t help noticing that the uneasy behavior surrounding the American had gone.

As they saw Palmer off at the fireplace, the Trio promised to keep in touch before heading back out.

“I should get started with our Project,” Hermione broke the silence. She and Harry filled Ron in on Neville’s earlier conversation with them.

“I thought that’s why you took off,” Ron nodded. “So, why the questions about Tony, then?”

“Maybe he cut off communication with the people he worked with after sending Agent,” Harry mused. “His cover was probably in danger of being exposed, and he went into hiding or is keeping a low profile. The clue he sent with Agent probably has the information he was put undercover for.”

“But we still won’t know until we’ve actually got it working,” Hermione blew her hair out of her face. “Let’s just concentrate on one thing at a time. That reminds me, we have to see if the latest victim went to school with the others.”

By the time dinner had started, the latest MK victim had been added to their list and Hermione had made a tentative list with the clues they had so far.

They were all male and went to school at the same time, but were in different Years and Houses and half didn’t interact with the others. It was unclear if they worked together, but they were all Ministry workers.

“Not much, is it?” Ron huffed, piling his plate high.

“It’s all we’ve got,” Hermione shook her head. “At least from the articles.”

“Which aren’t any help,” Harry added. The details were the barest minimum and the Ministry appeared to be doing the best they could at keeping things quiet.

“I wonder if this is how NCIS Agents feel when they’re on a case,” Hermione had to laugh.

“Like they want to tear their hair out?” Ron deadpanned. The three of them snickered.

They went on to enjoy their meal completely unaware of the audience from the Staff Table.

**


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, everybody! I have some big news:
> 
> I finished the story! This is a really big deal for me. Once I have everything typed up, I'll post once a week. I'll let you know when.
> 
> But... it's so long. I didn't really expect it.
> 
> Enjoy.

The residents of Hogwarts enjoyed more snowfall before Christmas.

Harry struggled out of bed on Christmas Eve morning as Ron dragged him up.

“C’mon, Harry,” he urged. “We’ll eat before going out to practice.”

Harry groaned as he remembered agreeing to help Ron with his Keeper position yesterday afternoon. Hermione would be going as time keeper for the maximum two hour limit. Some of the other Lions staying for the holidays had volunteered to help.

Agent was waiting nearby as Harry blearily dressed. Hermione had knitted the dog a second scarf, this one a dark blue with grey and black chess pieces charmed to perform a jig at random intervals. Harry couldn’t help wondering about that. If he didn’t know better, he would swear that Hermione was trying to mark Agent as belonging to the Trio.

“I think I had that energy drain again,” he yawned.

Ron waited with his arms crossed. “Palmer said that it wasn’t anything to worry about,” he reminded.

“Maybe, but it’s still annoying,” he shook his head.

Reuniting with Hermione and Agent, the four left the Tower and headed for breakfast.

Usually, everyone in the castle sat together to eat, but there were quite a few – notable – empty seats.

“Carlin’s not here,” Ron looked down the long table.

“But the Headmaster’s not here, either,” Hermione pointed out.

“Well, that settles it,” Ron grinned at his best mate teasingly. “Carlin’s working with Dumbledore. I always reckoned Dumbledore was trying to kill you.”

Hermione had to giggle as a strange barking sound came from under the table. Harry felt Agent shaking with laughter and had to grin himself.

“But why, do you think?” Harry deadpanned.

“Maybe he wanted Gryffindor’s Sword for himself,” Ron mused. “Or it’s in some kind of manual that whoever finds the Stone gets offed.”

“Doubtful,” Hermione airily commented. “It seems more likely that he wants to keep the Chamber’s location a secret. And since the two of you are the only ones who really remember it, you two have been the targets of all these attacks. Only, for some reason, they haven’t been able to kill the two of you.”

“Then, what about the MK?” Harry shrugged. “Think he’s got something to do with it?”

“We still don’t know what they look for in a victim,” Hermione brought the joking to a halt. “And why only the ones he killed? I mean, there has to be something that no one’s seeing.”

“Well, I bet you anything _someone_ could,” Harry finished his eggs.

“If it fell under his jurisdiction, sure,” she agreed. She drained her pumpkin juice before standing. Agent and the kids left the Great Hall before she continued, “Remember what Tony said about solving Magical cases only pertaining to the Muggle Navy.”

“Yeah, but isn’t he supposed to be a liaison?” Ron questioned. “To the MNP, I mean.”

“No, you’re right,” she sighed. “We never did get an explanation on what Tony actually does as an MNP Liaison.”

“You think he’s undercover for MNP business or NCIS?”

“Does it matter what Agency he’s working with?” Harry sighed. “Palmer said that someone in the Magical side gave him orders. They could be making Director Vance loan Tony out.”

“But what cover do you think he’s got?” Ron huddled down in his coat as they moved out in the snow.

“Bet Agent would know,” Harry grinned at the dog next to him.

“Yeah, probably since he almost blew it,” Ron shrugged.

“But that doesn’t mean that he actually _knows_ ,” Hermione negated.

She did have a point, though.

Tony sent Sirius to them with a clue and Harry didn’t quite think the Italian beat Sirius up to keep whatever his cover was, but Harry had no idea what the cover was to begin with. Maybe Tony already found him, bound his magic and sent him to Harry to tell them he was alright. And the whole mystery of it was to create some entertainment for them. Tony seemed the type to make an adventure out of nothing…

Thinking about what Dumbledore had told him about offering the Defense position to Tony, Harry couldn’t help wondering what it would have been like if Tony was their teacher.

“If Tony had been teaching us,” he mused aloud, “what d’you reckon would happen?”

“Well, we wouldn’t be talking about it,” Ron lifted a shoulder.

“And it would be a very interesting Defense class,” Hermione grinned. “The school has never had an American professor before. Long term, I mean, and Italian as well.”

“What d’you mean the school’s never had an Italian teacher?” Ron scowled at her. “’Course it has.”

“Yes, but Tony would be the first American professor with Italian blood. The ones before didn’t have Italian… Harry,” she stopped and turned to them. “Do we know anything about Tony’s family?”

The boys stared at her as they stopped just feet from the broomshed.

“Oh, I know it’s an odd thing to ask, but it’s something that I’ve often wondered about. Had Tony been our teacher, it would have been noteworthy since he’s both Italian and American. By itself, it would be a first. But I’m not quite sure about his family history to be completely sure about much else.”

As Harry and Ron got ready to go, Harry couldn’t help but wonder.

Tony really didn’t give them anything to go on with his own backstory. He frowned. Didn’t being married to someone mean that you had to get to know them? And even if the marriage bond didn’t factor in, Harry wanted to find out more about Tony as one of Harry’s three closest friends. Because Tony _did_ count as Harry’s friend. He already knew about the Weasley and Granger families, but nothing on the DiNozzo side.

“Think he’s an only child?” Harry asked Ron as they reached the Pitch field.

“Most likely,” Ron shrugged. “But I’m not all sure. Maybe he doesn’t like them much. I mean, look at Percy…”

Harry made a mental note to ask Tony when they could communicate again as he, Ron and a handful of others kicked off.

As much as Harry worried about Tony, there was something to be said about the calming effect that Harry experienced while in the air. He really did love it.

Once all who wanted to be in the air got into position, two Quaffles came out. Those who wouldn’t be throwing would practice Chasing. A fair number of them might even be good enough to tryout for a position in a team someday.

Actually, now that Harry thought about it, he was reminded of the game he played after the Halloween attack on AJ. As much as the Trio suspected Carlin, not only did they not have any proof, there was also that broom incident to think about. That would be the best evidence there was to be had.

And Harry didn’t think anyone found out how those Bludgers got onto the field or where they had come from. If anyone did, Harry didn’t know it. Not like anyone would have told him if they did.

He made a mental note to bring the subject up again after dinner before flying over to join the group with Ron.

Almost two hours later, Harry huffed a sigh as Ron wanted _more_ practice. So far, he’d managed to block more than half the throws and Harry honestly didn’t think any more practice was needed, especially not right away. And besides, everyone was frozen like this.

“C’mon, Harry,” Ron pleaded. “Another half hour, that’s all.”

“We agreed on two hours,” he glanced over to where Hermione and Agent sat watching them. “Everyone’s done today.”

“Two more throws?” Ron tried looking as pathetic as possible.

“Oh, fine,” he relented. “Two. No more.”

Two of the participants were chosen and were soon in position. The first threw the red ball, but as good as she was, Ron caught it.

The second got into his position, flew around and flung the Quaffle just as hard as he could at the middle hoop –

Only to have the red ball just… _stop_.

“What the bloody hell?” Ron blinked. Harry was immediately on alert as memories of the last incident ran across his mind.

“Think we should get someone?” a Chaser stand-in wanted to know.

Harry and Ron carefully approached the hovering Quaffle, only to have it drop to the ground before they could get close enough.

“Er, alright, you lot,” Ron scowled. “Inside with you, go on.”

Leaving him to bully the others back to the castle, Harry landed and carefully approached the grounded ball. Both Agent and Hermione joined him a few minutes later. Once Ron finally chased the last person out, he trotted over and shook his head. “At least it didn’t go after us, huh?”

“But if it wasn’t to hurt anyone,” Hermione thoughtfully poked it with a finger, “why did it just… why do it to begin with?”

For all intents and purposes, there didn’t seem to be any discernible reason for it to be messed with.

“Well, we aren’t going to get anything out of it,” Harry decided. “Let’s go inside.”

“I guess you’re right,” Hermione cautiously picked it up and blinked as she realized that it was starting to snow.

“We got some practice out of it before this started,” Ron pointed out.

“There is that,” she shrugged.

They started out of the Pitch and it took a few minutes before Harry looked at Hermione and realized why she looked different all of a sudden. “What happened to your scarf?”

She blinked at him before glancing down at where the ends of her House scarf… _used_ to be.

“Hey,” Ron glanced back from where he and Agent were in front of them. “He’s right. Did you leave it on your seat?”

“No, I –” she whirled around, thinking she’d dropped it or something, only to freeze in absolute shock once she registered that her scarf was in fact hovering a few feet in front of her.

“Bloody hell,” Ron gaped at it. The three of them looked from it to each other. “What d’you reckon we should do now?”

Before they could do anything else, the scarf bobbed up and down before taking off toward the guest stands halfway across the field.

Harry frowned after it before mounting his Firebolt.

“You honestly aren’t thinking of going after it, are you?” Hermione stared.

“Why not?” Ron crossed his arms and let his own broom lean against his side. “And don’t go on about getting the teachers involved.”

“But what about –”

“If it is an attack,” Harry interrupted, “then why all the cloak and dagger?”

“What if it’s a kidnapping attempt?”

“So, you’re convinced Carlin’s out to get Harry?” Ron countered. “If you’re so worried, you can go up there with him and _I’ll_ put the Quaffle back with the other one. C’mon, Agent. We’ll catch up with them in a tick.”

Hermione watched them before turning to Harry.

“I think Ron knows you’d be better in a fight,” he smiled slightly.

“That’s not true,” she gingerly climbed on behind him. She wrapped her arms around him and they kicked off. “Just because I know more about spells doesn’t mean that I would be better as back-up. Ron is a strategist and… could very well have sent me because he’s going to sneak around from behind and cover us in case we need it.”

Harry grinned as realization dawned.

Of course Ron would have sent them ahead. ‘Divide and conquer.’ Or, as Tony once put it, ‘Use one of you to lure the prey into a false sense of security – which won’t be hard to do since you guys don’t exactly inspire fright, I hate to tell you – while the others come in from the shadows. Then pounce.’

Harry landed lightly inside the guest box and the pair looked for close to twenty minutes before they found it.

“Let’s go,” Hermione tightly re-wrapped the scarf around her neck as she kept an eye out for surprises. They were about to do just that when Ron called through the radio.

 _“Harry, Hermione, quick!”_ he sounded panicked. _“Carlin and another bloke’s on their way up.”_

Hermione scurried to the exit and gave Harry a nod to tell him that Ron was right. She could hear their Professor coming up.

At this point, Harry could have flown them both out and away, but he could feel something telling him to stay. It was that same something that told the Trio to follow the MK victims in the _Prophet_.

“We’ll be down in a bit,” Harry answered back. “Keep your radio on down there.”

“Harry –”

“I want to know if Carlin’s really after me,” he shook his head at Hermione. “You have to admit that he’s taking the roundabout way to do it. Usually, they make sure I know someone’s after me and they don’t bother trying to make it look like an accident.”

 _“Isn’t that the truth,”_ Ron huffed. _“Alright, mate. Standing by.”_

Hermione rolled her eyes and extracted her wand as the voices came closer. “You, Ron and Tony are going to get me killed,” she muttered, shrinking the broom and stashing it in her pocket before instructing Harry to stand completely still as she cloaked him in charms.

“Well, if you feel that way,” he murmured back, “why are you friends with us?” He smirked as she huffed, covered in her own charms and sneaking onto the stands to sit right before the two men rounded the corner. Harry felt his heart stop as he realized that the strange wizard he’d been seeing all over Hogsmeade seemed awfully comfortable with their Professor.

“David,” the American placed a calming hand on the smaller man’s shoulder. “Have I failed you before?”

“No,” he sighed, ducking his head. He went to the opening and looked out over the Pitch as the snow started falling heavier. “I’m sorry, Michel. I do trust you, but… The Hufflepuff brat –”

“She is a child, David,” he waved Carlin’s worry away. “Children do silly things.”

“But –”

“She is a young girl who enjoys hair things. You know well how much they all do. As for the second,” he sighed in frustration. “I believe we need to practice ghost repelling charms.”

Carlin seemed to calm dramatically. “Yes, that is what we must do. But what if she –”

“The Brat was rattled enough. But we need to exercise stricter caution in that regard. She cannot be allowed to do this again. I believe you have a few tricks up your sleeve as to how to keep her occupied.”

Carlin nodded earnestly. “Of course, of course. But, Michel… The boy…”

“Ah, yes,” Michel nodded. “Well, I admit the plan needs a bit of refining, but I do think we will succeed yet.”

“We’ve tried,” Carlin anxiously wrung his hands. “And we were absolutely certain that it would work, but it _didn’t_.”

“No, it didn’t,” he agreed. Michel went to stand next to him at the railing. “It still requires looking into. But not to worry. I have resources, as you may recall. If it comes down to it –”

“And we still have the Problem. We haven’t been able to –”

“A Problem that is all mine,” Michel viciously cut him off, turning so that his back was to Harry, but not Hermione who was watching from the stands nearby. “You will just concentrate on your part of the plan. I will take care of mine.” He made an admirable attempt to calm. “Resources. I have some favors to call in, yet.”

“Shall I still keep my eye out for OL?”

“As we agreed,” Michel gave a nod. He looked back out over the Pitch, not realizing the audience watching them.

**


	25. Chapter 25

Once Harry and Hermione reunited with Ron and Agent, it was time for lunch.

“I still can’t believe it’s Professor Carlin,” Hermione rubbed her eyes as she reached for her pumpkin juice.

“Like we’ve been _telling_ you,” Ron hissed.

Harry understood how she felt. It had been one thing to suspect. It was something else to have it confirmed.

“So, he’s the one behind all these ‘accidents’ that have been going on,” Hermione steepled her fingers together. “He’s the one behind Harry’s close call.”

“Which also means that he’s the one who tried to get AJ to walk into the Lake,” Ron added grimly.

Which also meant that AJ had to be right, Harry realized. The hair ribbon she’d claimed was stolen… Carlin had stolen it? Why in the world would he try to kill AJ over a _hair ribbon_? Where in the Wizarding World did that make sense?

His head was starting to hurt.

“So this means that that bloke – Michel – is in on it,” Ron toyed with his fork. “AJ’s the ‘Hufflepuff brat’, Harry’s ‘the boy’… What or who is the Problem?”

“And OL,” Hermione ticked them off on her fingers along with Ron. “Is this OL some sort of accomplice or what? A codeword? A sign? There are too many questions with this.”

“OL could be virtually anything,” Harry tugged at his hair. “Or anyone. I guess that means we’ll need to keep an eye out for OL, too.” Whatever it may be.

After the comment about OL, Carlin and his friend had left. Harry and Hermione had quickly made their own way down.

Ever since, the Trio couldn’t think of anything else.

Harry looked up and down the table. Some of the professors weren’t there, but the students who signed up for this were.

“What d’you reckon the bloke’s ‘resources’ are?” Ron frowned.

“Professional, I suspect,” Hermione shrugged. “He has that kind of image.”

Harry shook his head. “We don’t let our guards down,” he told them. “Not for anything. Until something happens or we solve this, it’s between the three of us. And Agent,” he added, feeling a nudge against his leg. Ron and Hermione readily agreed, knowing well that the teachers were going to be virtually useless to them. And they really wanted to do the solving themselves.

Really, the only adult they could truly see themselves handing this over to was Tony and he was unavailable.

Sirius, on the other hand, was still a dog and completely useless to them for a different reason, and only for a handful of months more. But, he didn’t seem to be discouraging them from anything. He seemed to be enjoying himself almost as much as they were.

Once lunch had ended, the overall group dispersed and Harry found himself wandering the halls. Agent had decided to go back to the Tower with Hermione - presumably to find a warm bit of space to sleep in - and Ron had gone back outside to participate in a small scale snowball fight.

Harry glanced out a nearby window as he passed. It didn’t look like the snow was going to stop soon. Not that Ron and company minded; he glimpsed the snowball fight in full swing.

There was really nothing to do. Hermione had gotten them on their study schedules and they were actually a bit ahead of their work, even with their ‘extra-curricular’ activities of all kinds. Harry wandered around for another hour and a half before deciding to start back for the Tower, and was actually turning to head back down the hall when he glimpsed a portrait.

Now, portraits – as you well know – were everywhere within Hogwarts. This one had an older man drinking wine in a rocking chair. That wasn’t anything to take note of. But what was, was written on the top and bottom of the frame.

“Erm, sir?” Harry stepped closer. “Hello, um. Are you really from Norman Creswell?”

“Hm?” blue eyes blinked lazily at him. “Ah. Yes. Yes, I am. Dean Rodger Tobias Evansworth. At your service.”

“Harry Potter,” he nodded back.

“So you are,” he smiled widely. Dean Evansworth leaned back in his chair. “You’ve heard of Creswell, then.”

“I have a friend who went there. Maybe you know of him?”

“Perhaps. I do, after all, make an effort to be acquainted with our students by name, at least.”

Harry shifted his weight. “Tony DiNozzo.”

The effect was immediate. A fond smile appeared and a sparkle entered his eyes. “Ah, Tony. How could I forget him? You know, he was the main source of my entertainment when he was in school.”

“Really?” Harry leaned forward. He missed his friend a little less when talking about him and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to hear more about his friend back when Tony was at school. 

“Oh, of course,” the Dean nodded happily. “Never a dull moment with him and those friends of his running around. The four of them together were as much an unlikely group as you can imagine. And their little nicknames. We never did figure out where they originated from,” he mused, “but believe me, the other Deans and myself tried. We usually hang around in the current Dean’s office – much like the former Headmasters here – and with one of the four being the Dean’s son, we saw much of them. It was usually in the middle of a case, of course, but we enjoyed the energy.”

“Case? What kind of case?” Harry tilted his head. This was the first he’d heard of it.

“Mostly small things,” he sipped from his glass thoughtfully. “There were quite a few notable exceptions, of course. Well, from what we were able to gather. It was one of the smallest cases, if you believe it, that started it all. Oh, but you must not be comfortable standing all day. Find a seat.”

Once Harry was deemed sufficiently seated, Dean Evansworth nodded.

“Tony met his first friend Booker on the train their first year. From what the Sixth Year Prefects told us, Booker had lost a trinket that held great sentimental value and had gone looking all over for it. Poor thing had been in tears when she’d stumbled across Tony…”

Harry listened avidly as Dean Evansworth regaled the story told to him and laughed when the story fast forwarded to a particularly humorous incident that the Dean himself had witnessed. All the while, Harry could just imagine his friend running around with an equally curious Booker, both of them sticking their noses in to every nook and cranny.

It was kind of like him and his two friends, actually.

They were just getting over their slightly hysterical laughter when McGonagall happened upon them.

“Ah, Mr. Potter. I was on my way to find you in Gryffindor Tower. Dean Evansworth, if I may, Mr. Potter has an appointment with the Headmaster.”

“I do?”

“Of course, of course,” the Dean settled back in his chair. “Harry, you know where to find me. I’d like to speak with you more.”

“I’d like that, too, sir,” he smiled warmly. It was clear that the man positively adored Tony and Booker, along with their two friends.

“Come along, Mr. Potter,” his Head of House drew him away. “We have already kept the Headmaster waiting.”

“Yes, Professor.”

He followed her thoughtfully as they made their way up to the Headmaster’s office. He had been visiting the Headmaster when they had the time, though not as often as Dumbledore might have liked. Harry thought they would wait to try meeting around February. No one said anything to him about meeting at Christmas.

Once they arrived, Harry was surprised to see Snape, Flitwick and Sprout there along with the Headmaster and Hermione and Ron already seated on the couch.

Once settled, Dumbledore stood from his desk and walked around it, studying each of the Trio in front of him. “I apologize for taking you away from your activities, but something rather urgent has once again come to my attention.” His gaze landed on Harry. “Agent DiNozzo is said to be undercover. Do you confirm this?”

Harry was confused. “Of course, he is. We haven’t been able to send word to him or receive it.”

“We think it’s because Tony’s deep undercover,” Hermione supplied. “Owls and elves would draw unnecessary attention to him. And we’ve tried sending letters, but they just keep coming back unopened.”

“Ms. Granger,” Snape watched her with glittering black eyes. “Agent Palmer has told us that he’s been in contact with you.”

“Yes, sir,” she darted a quick look at Harry. Returning her attention to the Potions Master, she explained, “We were so worried about Tony’s safety that Agent Palmer agreed to send along word should he come in contact with him.”

“I see.”

“And you have had no direct contact with Tony since he went undercover,” Dumbledore prompted.

“None,” Ron spoke up. “None at all.”

The Trio felt all eyes in the room on them. Dumbledore studied them each in turn, Snape lurking behind him. None of the three knew exactly what was going on, but something was.

“Tony _is_ alright, isn’t he?” Hermione watched the adults nervously. “Palmer said he was coming back from his case.”

“I find it very hard to believe,” Snape drawled, “that you expect to get away with lying.”

“What?” Harry shook his head. “But, we’re not lying.”

“The consequences of this will not go unnoticed,” he narrowed his eyes. “I do promise you that.”

“Ron,” Sprout stepped forward to get his attention. “You see Agent DiNozzo as a friend, correct?”

“Yes,” he nodded earnestly. “He’s a very good friend.”

“Then, you would do anything to help him.”

“We all would,” Hermione interjected. “Just as we know that he would do anything to help us in return.”

The group of eight fell silent, each studying the other. It went without saying that the Trio wasn’t about to tell the adults anything. If there was anything to actually tell. And the cell phone was theirs. Sirius had made it clear that the teachers were to stay out of it.

“The consequences for lying are very severe,” McGonagall said quietly. “If you have, in fact, been in contact and have not told the truth –”

“But we haven’t seen or heard from Tony since the beginning of October!” Harry tried not to shout, he really did. But this was making him nervous. And why would he and his friends lie about hearing from Tony? Well, aside from the cell phone.

Dumbledore’s gaze turned thoughtful as Snape’s sharpened further.

“If you expect me to believe that you really don’t know where he is, you –”

“Why are you looking for him?” Hermione suddenly challenged. “Surely, you can contact one of his superiors and have them tell you. Unless he’s stumbled across some information that you’re looking for.”

“We’ve recently lost contact with him,” Dumbledore immediately intervened, giving Snape a warning look. “Not to worry, however. We are all certain that he is laying low and waiting for the opportune moment to reveal himself. You understand how concerned we are for Tony and we are trying to do everything in our power to find him. There are rumors of – well, I’m not entirely certain what to call them, but they are a type of Muggle that Tony was last heard to be attempting to infiltrate – and this was around the time we last heard from him.”

“But wouldn’t his supervisors need to be asking us these questions?” Ron studied him suspiciously. “Wasn’t he in America on this assignment?”

“Yes,” McGonagall nodded. “However, since you are our students, the Agents in charge have allowed us to… talk to you.”

It could just be Harry, but he was absolutely certain that it wasn’t so much as a talk as it was an interrogation. And he wasn’t sure he was buying the fact that they lost Tony. Harry remembered Dumbledore asking if he’d heard from Tony before now. How recently were they talking?

“Well,” Flitwick clapped his hands together. “I believe that shall do it. Hopefully we won’t need to drag the three of you anymore into this business.”

“Yes,” Sprout nodded earnestly in agreement. “You should be either studying for the new semester or relaxing, not thinking about things out of your control. Professors, Headmaster, I believe –”

“They are lying to protect him,” Snape announced.

“What?” Harry glared. “No, we are not. Tony didn’t answer our letters, so we went to Palmer who told us that he was undercover. We have nothing about Tony to lie to anyone about –”

“Interesting how he’s managed to gain your loyalty so quickly,” Snape interrupted. “It makes me wonder what he’s done.”

“He didn’t threaten us,” Harry bristled. “I don’t know what your problem is, but get it through your head that Tony’s a _good man_.”

It said something that Hermione didn’t scold him, but Harry was too upset by Snape’s accusations to notice.

“I never said he threatened you,” Snape also didn’t seem to take notice of the disrespect, though the other teachers did. “Tony DiNozzo is a skilled actor. Three susceptible young ones like yourselves are easy for him. He could have been lying to you about everything since you met.”

Tony had _never_ given the Trio any reason to doubt his words. The Italian didn’t set off any alarm bells – except maybe those saying ‘depression’, maybe ‘suicidal’ – and Palmer and Agent Donners – and everyone else Harry met that knew Tony – thought the world of him.

“You’re the one who’s lying!” Ron shot out of his seat. “He would never lie to us about anything unless it was for our own good!”

“Weasley, he’s a _skilled actor_ ,” Snape reiterated. “You would never know he’s lying or not.”

“But you didn’t see him when something upset him,” Harry insisted. “I know he hasn’t lied to us –”

“How?” Snape demanded.

“My gut,” he glared. Harry just barely noticed Hermione tugging on his sleeve. “I just _know_.”

“Just what DiNozzo would say,” Snape sneered.

“Severus,” Dumbledore stopped him. “I believe that is more than enough.”

Harry was too absorbed into glaring at Snape to notice much else, but Hermione’s tugging was starting to annoy him. Turning his glare on her, he scowled. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Yeah, Hermione,” Ron scowled on her other side. “Get up here and help us defend Tony.”

“Look by the fire,” she whispered. “I don’t know if it’s me or not, but –”

All the fire in the room suddenly went out.

Dumbledore immediately lit his wand. “Harry, why don’t you and your friends go back to the Tower?” he urged them. “It’s been a trying evening and you no doubt would like to rest some before dinner.”

McGonagall didn’t give the friends a choice as she crowded them out.

“I don’t like this,” Harry led his friends away from their Head of House as she watched from the gargoyle that led up to the Headmaster’s office. “They seemed pretty convinced that Tony had told us some information about where he is.”

“We don’t have any idea,” Ron scowled. “But I might know where we can get one, right, Hermione?”

“Not so loud,” she scolded. “I still have to do loads of research.”

Harry frowned slightly as they went down the corridors. Now, usually, the cold and drafty halls weren’t that unusual, but – “Does it feel colder than normal?”

“Yeah,” Ron frowned. “Reckon it’s related to Dumbledore’s fire?”

Hermione hesitated for a second before drawing the boys to a stop. “I saw something before the fire went out,” she bit her lip.

“You said something like that before,” Harry prompted.

“I don’t know how to explain it… It was like the air went… smoky?... right before the fire went out.”

“Carlin?” Ron threw out there.

“Why?” Harry frowned. “What could Carlin possibly want with Tony? Or could it be something else?”

A bark caught their attention before anything else could be said. They turned to see Agent racing toward them, along with two of the Third Years that stayed for the holidays – one Hufflepuff and one Ravenclaw.

“What’s wrong?” Hermione immediately demanded.

“The fires in our common rooms,” the Ravenclaw puffed, not really used to running. “Some of them keep going out and the other ones are lower than they usually are.”

The Hufflepuff nodded in agreement as the Trio just looked at each other. Agent whined, nudging Harry on the side.

“Let’s talk to the Headmaster,” Hermione turned back around to lead them back the way they came.

Agent ran ahead and didn’t go past three classrooms before he stopped suddenly. The kids stopped in confusion as he turned to a closed door and started sniffing.

“Agent?” Ron frowned. “What is it?”

The dog started barking and scratching at the door, looking back at them before barking again.

Harry looked at the others before taking his wand out and flinging the door open. Smoke started immediately pouring out, hitting him in the face as Agent started barking even louder. Ron pulled them out and dragged them away from the door.

Hermione turned to the Third Years and barked, “Go get the Headmaster! The password is Icy Grape Lollies. Go!”

The pair scrambled off as she hurried over to Harry and Agent, both hacking from the smoke.

Ron shook his head. “There’s a fire in there,” he nodded back at the door.

“You think it’s related to the fires going out?” Hermione frowned. “Well, that does make sense,” she sat up. “I mean, the fire went somewhere, didn’t it?”

“If Carlin’s behind this,” Harry coughed, “he’s getting a little closer to his goal.”

By the time the teachers arrived, the Trio had already managed to contain a good portion of the fire and the soot and smoke covered them in a fine layer.

“We shall take over,” Dumbledore steered them out of the room. “Poppy is already expecting you. This shan’t take long.”

That’s what _he_ thought.

Unfortunately, news came to the Trio as they convalesced in the Hospital Wing that three fires had been found in the dungeons. Eight more were found all over the school.

“Just what the bloody hell is going on?” Ron shook his head as more portraits ran around the Trio on their way back to the Tower.

“Maybe it’s some kind of trick that Professor Carlin is using to keep himself from being found out?” Hermione mused. “But no. As far as I can tell, no one is suspecting him of anything.”

All the students who had stayed during the holidays were to stay in their common rooms until breakfast as the teachers and staff worked to figure out what was going on with the fires. No one was allowed out, as the halls were being patrolled with a vengeance.

“But I think the real question is,” Harry frowned, “why are the teachers looking for Tony?”

“You don’t really think he’s run into trouble, do you?” Hermione frowned at him. She absently patted Agent as he shuffled closer.

“We need that clue,” Ron sighed. “Hermione, how soon can you work on it?”

“But we need to be careful,” Harry cautioned. “I have a feeling that the teachers are going to be watching us for a while.”

The other two agreed. It hadn’t escaped their notice either.

As dinner was served in the Common Room, Harry couldn’t help thinking even more about Tony. Ginny and Neville had both reported being questioned about Tony and Palmer’s odd behavior was suddenly starting to make sense. At first, Palmer had been as clueless as them, but now it seemed like he was trying to get information out of the Trio and it seemed like it was the same information that the teachers were trying to get.

All this led to one undisputable fact:

Palmer knew something. And Harry was going to find out exactly what that was.

** *


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, ladies and gentlemen.
> 
> We will probably reach 500+ pages by the time we're done here. We reached 430 a few pages ago and there's still more to come.

There was this one morning – last Easter Holidays – when the Trio had been ensconced in the Black family library. It had been three and a half days since they found out about the marriage bond and were still prone to getting sleepy, so Hermione decided that they were going to study as much as they could in the morning before putting their things away to be dealt with tomorrow.

Harry clearly remembered looking up at the sound of footsteps and seeing Tony stumbling over to an armchair and collapse bonelessly in it.

“What in Merlin’s name happened to you?” he frowned at him. The Italian looked terrible.

“Merlin is probably the only one who knows,” Tony had groaned, rubbing his face. “You got me. I woke up like this and felt like utter crap. Like, I’d gone almost two weeks without sleep on no less than eight cases that had me running back and forth between NCIS and MNP.”

“You look like it, too,” Ron told him bluntly.

At the time, Tony looked like he could barely keep his eyes open, let alone run anywhere. Harry had wondered how he really felt.

Now, however, he couldn’t help commiserating.

It was a struggle to pry an eyelid open on Christmas… well, it was almost afternoon, now.

His stomach growling hungrily prevented him from sinking back into sleep’s welcome arms and it was almost a good hour later that he felt himself ready to move around.

It took longer than usual to get dressed, but he managed to get it done. Once he finished, he slumped on his bed and glanced over to see Ron just starting to fight to wake.

Agent had disappeared somewhere and by the time the boys managed to stumble downstairs, Hermione was looking as tired as they felt.

“I thought we were over this,” she looked near tears.

“It’s just like Palmer said,” Harry patted her arm. “It’s just the worry about Tony.”

“And last night didn’t help any,” Ron sighed. He was so hungry that he didn’t even look twice at the gifts piled on the end of his bed. They hurried to eat and set upon lunch like they hadn’t eaten in days.

“You must really be starving,” a younger Gryffindor giggled as Ron near inhaled his soup.

“’S so _good_ ,” he managed before getting his hands on some sandwiches.

Harry was eating just as much and didn’t give a thought when Hermione matched him bite for bite. She usually didn’t guzzle her food like they did, but she was hungry enough to throw her usual habits out the window.

They managed to eat a sizable amount of dessert before all was said and done.

“Did you lot eat enough?” a Ravenclaw raised his eyebrow at them.

“Hit the spot, alright,” Hermione smiled somewhat dopily at him.

It wasn’t until they managed to get back to the Tower and in the Sixth Year boys’ dorm room that the fog started clearing.

“What the bloody hell was that about?” Ron scowled at them.

“I have no idea,” Hermione scrubbed her eyes. “I just felt so _hungry_ …”

“Think it’s a symptom of the sleeping thing Palmer explained to us?” Harry looked between them worriedly.

“What other explanation could there be?” Hermione spread her hands. “It can’t be Professor Carlin, because… well, what would be the point? Besides, this has been going on for far longer than Professor Carlin’s been trying to hurt Harry, so…”

She was right, though. The sleeping sickness – for want of something better to call it – was triggered because of their worry for Tony and probably the fact that they’d had such easy access to him before school started made it that much harder to deal with. It had all come to a head last night when Snape started needling them about Tony.

“I want Tony back,” Ron announced to the room. “Then maybe we’ll be able to sleep like normal people.”

The sentiment was wholeheartedly shared.

They dug into the boys’ gifts and there were many smiles and laughter, but it wasn’t as joyous as the previous Christmases – especially with the lack of presents from an equally absent Tony.

Palmer, however, did send some things along. Some, the note had said, were a few things that Tony had been eyeing for them before he left. Palmer had taken it upon himself to give them to him and the friends appreciated his efforts to make them feel better.

Ron was just admiring the American quarter that Palmer had sent him, when Harry’s uneasy shifting caught his attention. “Alright, Harry?”

“Did either of you notice that Palmer seemed a bit off? Well, I know you did, Ron, but I mean… In light of what happened last night… I couldn’t help thinking that Palmer… you know. Knows something.”

Hermione thoughtfully munched on a bar of Honeyduke’s chocolate. “I thought that was just me. You really think he could know something about what’s going on and why people might be looking for Tony?”

“He’s got to,” Ron added. “Harry’s right. Palmer used to seem like he was worried just as much as we were, right? Then, all of a sudden, it’s like… I dunno. Something shifted.”

“Of course,” Hermione agreed. “And we are going to find out just what he knows, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Ron shrugged. “I mean, if I was Tony and I find someone keeping some very important information about someone I was worried about, I’d interrogate them.”

“The question is, though, how are we going to do that?”

** *

In the end, they really didn’t need to do much.

It was New Year’s Eve when they had their chance.

Hermione had locked herself up in her empty dorm to work on Tony’s mobile phone as the boys doodled on bits of scrap parchment and Agent snoozed close to the fire, his pillow an apology gift from Seamus Finnegan after he inadvertently set three plants, one desk and almost a quarter of the eagle owls in the Owlry after him in November. Not even Hermione had been able to figure out how the other Gryffindor had managed it, but Agent had been a nervous wreck for weeks afterward.

“It’s New Year’s Eve,” Harry looked around at the otherwise empty room. The other Lions were off doing other things. “I can’t believe it’s been a year.”

Ron blinked up at him. “A year? What – oh. The marriage bond.”

Harry turned to watch his Godfather sleeping on his pillow and sighed. All the past few months since they found Sirius, the Trio had been careful about not talking – much – about the bond that they shared with Tony.

None of them really thought Sirius had any idea, but they still couldn’t help being careful.

“I wonder where he is and how he’s doing.” The Trio hadn’t been lying to the teachers about not knowing where he was, but they still wondered. The teachers had been too preoccupied with the mysterious fire outbreak to really deal with them. It was just how the Trio wanted it.

“Think he remembers today?” Ron stretched.

“Of course, he does,” Harry frowned at him. “It’s Tony. I hardly think any of us are going to soon forget the day our lives turned upside down.”

Harry leaned his head back against the headrest of his armchair and sighed.

They couldn’t actually do anything until Hermione finished with the next step. The precautions they were taking would see this project finishing around February if they were lucky and nothing else happened. Not that Harry was holding out hope…

He was just starting to read another page in Adrienne Lewis’ diary when the portrait opened to admit Palmer and someone else.

While Harry had never actually met her, he knew exactly who she was. He stood and smiled warmly. “Hi, Colonel MacKenzie. Welcome to Hogwarts.”

Sarah “Mac” MacKenzie tilted her head at him, a smile playing across her lips. Brown eyes swept over him and a hand came up to sweep chin-length brown hair behind her ear. “Well, thank you, Mr. Potter. And you must be Ron Weasley,” she shook the redhead’s hand next. “Palmer and Tony told me about you.”

“Where’s Hermione?” Palmer looked around.

“Dorm,” Ron pointed.

The brunette appeared at the top of the stairs almost as if summoned, hair falling from her ponytail and looking hassled. Her brown eyes took in her two friends and she opened her mouth to say something, only for Palmer to draw her attention.

Once everyone had been introduced, the five – and dog – settled down around one of the fireplaces and sipped cocoa that Dobby had to be talked out of bringing them a whole tub full of.

The group alternated between idle chatter and watching the snow fall and fire flicker when Mac carefully set her mug down.

“So. I hear Tony will be coming back soon.”

“From what we understand, yes,” Hermione nodded.

“And I am to understand that you haven’t heard from Tony for a long time, now?”

Harry couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy. It seemed like everyone was looking for Tony. The teachers, Palmer and now Mac. There had to be a reason, right?

What was going on?

 

“Why do you want to know where Tony is?” Hermione wanted to know in a small voice. “We know the teachers are looking for him, too.”

 

“And Aurors,” Ron added. Harry looked at him questioningly and the redhead shrugged. “Dad sent me a letter asking if Tony wrote.”

 

“There’s something going on,” Harry scowled at Mac and Palmer. “Why all the interest in Tony?”

 

“The Headmaster told us he went missing,” Hermione added. “Do you know if he’s alright?”

 

Mac glanced at Palmer. “We don’t know where he is, exactly,” she sighed, worry shining from her own brown eyes. “But we think he’s alright.”

 

“We kind of suspect he’s in Britain,” Palmer spoke after a few minutes.

 

“How?” Ron frowned.

 

Hesitating, Mac bit her bottom lip. “We have evidence to suspect that he’s in Britain, but that’s it.”

 

“How reliable is your evidence?” Hermione questioned.

 

“We have some eyewitness accounts that place him in random areas.”

 

Harry turned his gaze to the fire.

 

Tony had been undercover before people lost contact with him. The Trio had his mobile, led to it by Sirius, who may have been beaten by Tony to keep said cover. That brought the question of what cover could Tony possibly have? And now, he’s evidently in Britain and had been for some time.

 

The case had to be magical because the MNP had been the ones to lose him instead of NCIS. So, it was only logical to come to the conclusion that Tony was undercover in Britain because of a magical case. Tony told them in Fourth Year that people went undercover because of drugs, weapons, terrorists and –

 

“The Ministry Killer.” It made so much sense now. “Is he tracking the Ministry Killer?” Harry whirled on Palmer. “That’s why he went undercover, isn’t it? Because someone was giving signs of killing people and Tony was sent to track them.”

 

“He stopped writing to us about that time,” Hermione exchanged wide-eyed looks with Ron. “It was about then that the Killer started. How did I not see this?”

 

Scenarios raced through Harry’s mind. Tony must have had to put some kind of untraceable charms on himself to avoid detection and that affected Hedwig and some of the other owls used to try to contact him. Sirius had come dangerously close to blowing Tony’s cover and Tony used the opportunity to have Sirius send a message on to them. Tony bound Sirius’ magic to keep him from accidently changing back and to force Dumbledore to allow Sirius to stay with the Trio.

 

“That’s it!” Ron slumped back in his chair. “He’s trying to catch the Killer!”

 

“What’s his progress?” Hermione turned to Mac. “Has he caught up to them?”

 

Mac had been staring at Palmer, but turned back with a smile. “Tony was right when he said you were smart. That’s exactly what’s happened. But, as you’ve said, we lost Tony so we aren’t exactly sure of a lot of things. We _do_ think that Tony was almost discovered and that’s why he went to ground. We would very much appreciate any information you might have. It’s very important that we find him and get him home in one piece as quickly as possible.”

 

“But we really don’t know,” Harry shook his head. It wasn’t all lie, but it was also half-truth. The mobile had a clue on it, but no one knew what it was. That was for the Trio and them alone.

 

Mac studied him for a few minutes before nodding. “But should you have anything, you’ll let someone know.”

 

The Trio eagerly agreed, not wanting to give anything away just yet.

 

Once the Americans left for locations unknown (“What exactly _is_ a ‘mess’?”), the Trio returned to their table.

 

“I’m glad to know that Tony’s on our side of the pond,” Harry told them.

 

“A load off my mind,” Hermione smiled widely. Ron was quiet and seemed deep in thought when the bell for dinner rang.

 

Afterwards, the boys got in some flying before everyone gathered around the Great Lake’s edge for the fireworks.

 

“I kind of wish Tony was here already,” Hermione huddled between her boys, burrowed in her winter cloth

 

“You reckon he’s ever seen the fireworks here?” Ron piped up as Agent leaned against his leg.

 

“I don’t know,” Harry shrugged. “We can ask him when he comes back.”

 

As the show began, Harry watched. He was fairly sure that Tony had never seen them at Hogwarts. He would’ve seen him before Third Year, if that had been the case.

 

Putting aside his worry for Tony for a bit, Harry wished he was here. And as the clock struck midnight, Harry had the disturbing feeling that he was missing something.

 

** *


	27. Chapter 27

The morning of January seventh was cold and crisp.

The students would be returning later that night, so Harry spent the morning in a House snowball fight with freshly fallen snow. Even Hermione had been dragged into it and Agent barked encouragement as he ran back and forth.

They had to stop earlier than they wanted to because Agent had unknowingly hopped into a rather deep spot and it took almost a half hour to dig him out.

After lunch, the Trio joined Agent in the Common Room where he lay on his pillow next to a fireplace.

“Poor Agent,” Hermione curled up next to him, petting his dark fur comfortingly. “You had a shock, didn’t you?”

He whined in response.

Ron was scowling at the fire and Harry sat on a chair’s arm to focus on him. “What’s wrong with you, then?” he crossed his arms.

“Something’s off,” Ron shook his head. “I mean, when Mac and Palmer were here.”

“Off how?”

“Dunno. I just think we’re missing something.”

Harry started slightly. “I thought that was just me.”

“But what could we be missing?” Hermione tilted her head at them. “From what I understand, the story makes sense.”

It did, but Harry still felt that something was off. Like the story had something else to it. Something that should have been obvious from the beginning.

The Ministry Killer was killing off former Hogwarts students and Tony was tracking him. How did the Killer get so close to his victims? The Prophet said no struggle, didn’t they? So, then, maybe the Killer was someone who the others knew and thought was a friend. It had to be a friend, because a stranger wouldn’t have access to a Ministry employee…

Unless…

Hermione’s head shot up, eyes wide. “I just thought of something,” she bit her lip. “The Killer was supposed to be international.”

Ron suddenly jolted. “That’s right! Remember last Easter?”

_Sirius rattled a paper as Tony and the Trio lay around him in the library. “Hey,” he blinked. “Here’s something that might be of interest, Tony. Says here a Muggle Bobby was arrested for killing his aunt and two of her mates.”_

_“That’s horrible,” Hermione tsked sympathetically._

_“Is that the Aunt that was visiting from Spain?” Tony tipped his head back to look at the Marauder upside down. “My friend was saying something about that the other day. Our other friend at the Yard was tearing his hair out about that case. Three vics, no struggle, no witnesses, no evidence.”_

_“Did your Bobby friend solve it?” Harry wanted to know._

_“All in good time,” Tony lifted a shoulder, resettling in his armchair. “Once it was pointed out that the nephew had a badge.”_

_“What’s that got to do with anything?” Ron frowned._

_“Well, when you’ve got a badge,” he shrugged, “you get let in with no questions asked.”_

That was how the Killer was getting close to their victims without having to force entry. By using an international badge as an excuse.

Hermione swallowed thickly as another thought occurred. “Ron, Harry,” she stared at them, tears starting to gather at the corners of her eyes. “What if Mac and Palmer and the teachers aren’t asking because they lost Tony as he was tracking the Ministry Killer… what if they’re asking because he _is_ the Ministry Killer?”

It took a long time to calm down, made even worse by the fact that none of them could find anything to contradict that statement and everything they could think of only pointed further to Tony being a serial killer.

“It’s not true,” Hermione hiccupped. “It _can’t_ be!”

“Maybe it’s a mistake,” Ron shrugged helplessly. “I mean, we won’t know for sure until they actually find him right?”

“No,” Harry scowled. “We can’t let them throw Tony into Azkaban. Remember Agent?” he pointed to where the canine was pressed up against Hermione’s leg, whining pitifully in attempt to comfort. “Remember Third Year? We need to hear Tony’s side of the story!”

Hermione sniffed hard, visibly pulling herself together. “Yes, you’re right,” she wiped her eyes. “We can’t let them find Tony and arrest him without a trial.”

“So, we find him first,” Ron nodded with determination. “Which means we have to find that clue, Hermione.”

“I know, but it’s still going to take time. Especially now, when the teachers will more likely than not be watching us more closely.”

It never even once occurred to them to believe that Tony was a killer.

As Ron had said, “Poor bloke looks like he’d do _himself_ in before thinking about killing anyone else.”

None of them got the feeling that Tony could possibly kill in cold blood. They didn’t feel threatened around him and that had said a lot considering the fact that they were almost constantly surrounded by strangers in connection to Dumbledore’s Order. The friends just knew that Tony couldn’t be a serial killer. They knew deep in their gut that the Italian was innocent in this. They didn’t question it, especially in light of what had happened in Third Year.

The boys nodded. They couldn’t do anything more than what they’d done so far – as making electric dependent things work on magic took time because of the difficulty of the task –, so they spent the hours leading up to dinner doing what little remained of the homework that Hermione had let them ignore until the last minute and worrying about Tony’s well-being.

“You don’t think he’ll come here, do you?” Hermione buried her fingers into Agent’s fur. “He’s heard about Padfoot. Remember Harry told him at the Cup? maybe he’ll want at least one person to listen to him and he’ll know that he can count on us to help him.”

“But he would have to know he won’t be safe here,” Ron pointed out. “We’ll be watched, so he won’t be able to contact us.”

They didn’t have much time to worry about it, because dinner was starting and they didn’t want to make anyone suspicious this soon. Especially since the Trio were fairly certain that no one knew they had caught onto the real reason for being questioned.

They rejoined their returning classmates as everyone streamed into the Great Hall for dinner.

The Staff were all in attendance and there was not a doubt in Harry’s mind as to why. He, Ron and Hermione kept up a half-hearted attempt to keep up appearances, but they weren’t able to completely engross themselves into conversations about everyone’s holiday.

Harry was just contemplating his pumpkin juice when a snatch of conversation drifted his way.

“-, well, I wouldn’t have any idea about that, but I’m fairly sure that not _everyone_ enjoyed their break.”

“I know! Did you talk to that Hufflepuff, yet?”

Harry straightened.

“No, but I heard one of the Prefects say that she was feeling a bit ill.”

“She looks it, too. And she isn’t eating, from what I’ve been seeing so far.”

Harry was scanning the Hufflepuff Table before realizing it.

The feeling that told him to trust Tony and believe in his innocence was now telling him exactly who the subject of conversation was. It didn’t take long before his eyes locked onto a certain First Year Hufflepuff.

AJ Johnson wasn’t looking at all like the last time he’d seen her at Hogsmeade Station. She didn’t look like she’d been sleeping and looked like she needed to eat instead of playing with the food that the Hufflepuff triplet tried coaxing her to eat. Summer Benson kept shooting looks at her sisters, who seemed just as much at a loss as to what to do.

“Doesn’t look well, does she?” Hermione had followed his gaze and frowned in concern. AJ may not have taken to her as quickly as she did with Harry or warmed up to as slowly to Ron, but the younger witch had showed thawing toward her before leaving.

Harry knew his friend was slightly hurt about being left out, but had assured her that it took time.

It might not have explained the girl’s instant connection with him or the gradual warming to Ron, but Harry was confident that AJ would warm up to Hermione before year’s end.

Harry had, after all, showed his trust in the both of them with the ribbons and –

“What are you two staring at?” Ron frowned at them. His sister, Ginny, twisted in her seat to look and sighed.

“We tried to get her to see Pomfrey, but she wouldn’t hear of it,” she turned from the pale girl to refocus on her plate. “I sat near her and the triplets. She’s not responded to many letters and even that Slytherin First Year – Ezekiel, I think his name is – even stopped by to check on her.”

“I’m sure she’ll be right as rain after getting sleep or food in her,” Hermione finally tore her eyes away.

Ron seemed deep in thought and didn’t add anything.

“Ron, Hermione,” Harry snapped out of his daze. “Let’s check in with AJ after dinner, okay?” He was concerned about her, too, but he just remembered something and was eager to put his plan into action.

The brunette was a bit eccentric, but she was alright to hang out with. He had also been a bit suspicious about these little things she would do – claiming accidental with extraordinarily coincidental timing - , but the idea that AJ could be a Seer was something that Harry wasn’t sure he could think about with a straight face. She could be an extremely perceptive child or was more clumsy than anyone thought at first glance.

In any case, the three friends managed to corner her after dessert.

“AJ,” Hermione called, them running after her.

The First Year turned and smiled slightly. “Happy New Year,” she greeted, stopping for them. “Were your holidays good?”

“Oh, yes,” she nodded earnestly. “Very relaxing.”

“Yeah,” Ron crossed his arms with a scowl. “Right up until we found out our mate’s being accused of murder.”

“Shh!” Hermione hissed, AJ blinking with interest.

“Accused of murder?” grey eyes looked to Harry for information.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Actually, it’s something that we need to talk to you about.” He herded the others into a niche and dragged a hand through his hair. “We need some help with that. Our friend, Tony, is in a lot of trouble and he’s gone to ground because of it.”

“Everyone’s looking for him,” Hermione went on, “and we don’t want anything to happen to him.”

“So you’re going to help him,” AJ nodded thoughtfully. “Are you going to prove him innocent?”

“That’s where you come in,” Harry nodded. “Recently, we’ve come into possession of something that could help, but the teachers don’t want us to help him. I was thinking about the hair ribbons and –”

“I’m in,” she interrupted, “I’ll help. Just tell me what to do.”

“It could be dangerous,” Ron offered. “And you could get into a lot of trouble if you’re caught.”

“Don’t worry about me. You just help your friend.”

“Are you sure, AJ?” Hermione studied her.

She nodded.

“Alright, then. But we’re not really ready for much just yet. I still have a lot of work to do.”  
  
“That’s fine. I’ll be ready whenever you are.”

Concluding business, Ron and Hermione left for their meeting and Harry was left walking AJ to her Common Room.

“Thanks for helping, AJ,” he told her. He started slightly when she suddenly hugged him tight. They stood like that for a minute, Harry awkwardly patting her shoulder until she let go.

AJ didn’t look very sick anymore, now that she had an assignment to focus on. Her eyes sparkled with barely held excitement. “This is one of my favorite presents,” she announced. “I won’t let you down, Harry.”

“I know you won’t,” he agreed.

“And I won’t breathe a word to anyone,” she assured. “ _Especially_ the adults.”

So, she was still on that crusade, huh? No matter. In this case, that was _exactly_ what they wanted.

He waited until she disappeared into her Common Room before going back up to his.

It wouldn’t be until months later that her behavior tonight would come back to him after Spring break, and it would take months after that – well into his Seventh Year – for him to arrive at the same conclusion that someone else had only hours before.

** *

 


	28. Chapter 28

Classes started up again without any ‘unusual’ accidents.

Snow would fall, the Great Lake froze over a few times and – for most of the students – life went on.

But as January slowly marched on, Harry, Ron and Hermione split their time with being ‘normal’, hardworking, head down, nothing-to-see-here-move-along students by day, Quidditch practice (Gryffindor would be taking on the winner of the next game) and moonlighting as amateur investigators by night.

Hermione was keeping track of victims that were still trickling in from the Killer (who was _not_ Tony, thank you very much) and the boys did whatever they could to help her gradual progress with Tony’s mobile. She told them that the switch could be completed by the week after Valentine’s Day if all went to plan. Unfortunately, it would be a few days before it was charged enough for them to turn it on.

AJ was an angel, as she did whatever she could to help. She even managed to run interference with teachers – except Carlin, who appeared to be getting more jumpy as time went on and was more likely to yell at her or put her in detention – before the Trio could be cornered for interrogating.

“Did she really set fire to Carlin’s office?” Ron asked one night in the Common Room. I was almost the middle of January and the friends were doing some homework near the fire. Agent was curled up with Crookshanks on his pillow nearby.

“That’s what she told me,” Harry shrugged, tapping his quill against his glasses as he frowned at his History of Magic essay.

“Did she say how?” Hermione glanced from her Ancient Runes work. “I mean, it’s not easy trying to set something on fire in this school.”

“I don’t know,” he lifted a shoulder. Honestly, he wasn’t all too sure _she_ knew. He hadn’t forgotten about her ‘supposed’ sleepwalking, but still had yet to see anything on the Map or hear of anything. Maybe it had been one of those times. It wasn’t unheard of, after all, for students to take naps.

“It was scary timing, though,” Ron mused.

“It happens,” the non-believer of all things Divination waved a hand. “It’s not anything to jump to conclusions about and you do know that there is such a thing called lucky timing/ coincidence?”

Harry was skeptical, but wasn’t going to comment.

In any case, Hermione stretched. “I’m honestly surprised at how effective she’s been.”

“She could be an actress,” Harry mused. “Or an undercover Auror, like Tony or something.”

“Reckon she’s set fire to anything else?” Ron questioned.

“It couldn’t have been her over the break,” Hermione shook her head. “She wasn’t even here.”

Crookshanks took the opportunity to rub against his Mistress’ legs for attention.

“Hey,” Harry frowned, reminded of something else. “Either of you notice Mrs. Norris hanging around more than usual?”

“Thought that was just me,” Ron blinked.

Harry had started to notice the increased feline attention just last year.

Around the time that Mac and Palmer had fed them the other cover story, Harry had taken a walk to the Owlry to order a present for Ron’s birthday in March. While going on his way, he’d felt like he was being watched and it hadn’t been until he was on the return trip that he’d realized just who his stalker had been.

“I’d thought I saw her coming back from Ancient Runes,” Hermione straightened. “When did she start following us?”

Ron lifted a shoulder. “I caught her before Agent gave us that clue.”

“So it’s _not_ because of our project?”

“Guess not.”

Harry frowned. “What could it possibly be, then? The Project is really the only thing we’ve been doing.”

“It’s Norris, mate,” Ron shrugged. “It could be anything.”

Just in case, the Trio made extra sure to keep their heads down for the next week.

* **

But as much as they covered all their bases, Mrs. Norris kept following them.

The teachers were suspicious enough about the Trio and their activities already.

“She’s going to get us caught,” Hermione hissed on their way to Astronomy class.

“We haven’t done anything!” Ron threw his hands up. “She’s got it in for us.”

Harry scrubbed a hand through his hair in exasperation. They just couldn’t shake her.

It was especially frustrating since she seemed to switch targets several times a day between the three of them.

“We aren’t betraying Tony,” Hermione scowled. “I will not be the next betrayer and I will most _certainly_ not be the one that gets him arrested!”

“Hermione,” Harry sighed. “No one is going to be doing anything that could get him caught.”

“Yeah,” Ron agreed. “Maybe there’s a Wormtail trying to frame him.”

“Obviously,” she huffed. “We know _Tony’s_ not killing people in cold blood.”

But that still brought the question of who the Killer was.

Tony couldn’t be offing anyone, so someone else was doing it. Harry wasn’t going to worry – much – about where the Italian was holed up, because, if the Trio didn’t know, then Tony would be safe. This, then, brought Tony’s clue to the front of Harry’s mind.

He sincerely hoped it didn’t say anything about the Italian’s location.

 ** *


	29. Chapter 29

Mrs. Norris followed them back from Astronomy and kept her eye on them for the next few days.

In that time, six more ‘accidents’ occurred and the Trio was reminded that Tony and the Ministry Killer were the least of their problems.

“It’s like he was waiting for us to drop our guards,” Ron hissed as they huddled in a corner of the library. Snow fell steadily outside the window as afternoon turned into dusk.

Hermione bit her lip as she fiddled with her quill.

It was clear that Carlin was targeting those around Harry as Neville, Vince, Rosslyn, and three others had to be sent to the Hospital Wing as a result from what the teachers were convinced were attempts at mischief. Because the teachers weren’t buying the protests of it being an accident, points had been deducted, detentions given and families notified.

When Harry had tried talking to McGonagall about what had happened, she had all but laughed in his face over the assumption that a Death Eater had managed to slip past the teachers and, even more ludicrous, Dumbledore.

He had barely managed to restrain himself from storming off in a huff, only to catch sight of AJ, who gave him a look that _clearly_ said, ‘I told you so.’ The conversation they’d had in her Common Room had come back to him and he honestly couldn’t blame her anymore for her mistrust of the grown-ups.

“It’s not enough that others are getting hurt,” Harry scowled. “The teachers don’t think there’s anything to be worried about, but even they have to be suspicious of the amount of accidents that people have been having since September!”

“Well, we’ll just have to take a more active role in this investigation, Agent Potter,” Hermione drew herself up. It had made her feel just a little helpless to know that others were getting dragged into their mess and getting in trouble for it.

Ron – always going along when Hermione’s plans took on a more ‘against the rules’ air – sat up and took notice.

“What did you have in mind?” Harry wanted to know.

“Well, I was thinking that since we’ve already made progress with one of our cases, I think we should take on this one.”

“Tony wouldn’t want us to worry too much, right?” Ron mused thoughtfully. “We’re just going to be distracting ourselves until we get something else to go on.” The homework, Quidditch practice, DA meetings, MK case and Adrienne’s diary was clearly not exciting enough, but Harry got the point.

They regrettably had to put the diary aside to focus on helping Tony and do what they could to help with the MK case in the meantime.

But even then, they had to wonder if Tony really did have a connection to the Ministry Killer. Until they actually talked to Tony, however, they would have to take the idea with a grain of salt.

“Not like anyone else is doing anything,” Harry snorted. He was about to turn back to his own homework, when he suddenly caught sight of a Ravenclaw lurking in the area. “Er, hi,” he blinked. “Can we help you?”

Ron and Hermione followed his gaze as the Ravenclaw shyly scuttled forward. Now that Harry could see her in the nearby firelight, he saw that she was a Third Year.

“Hello,” Hermione smiled warmly.

“Hi,” she returned it shyly. “Um, I couldn’t help overhearing you talking about everything that’s been going on and I was… kind of hoping to help?”

The Trio looked at each other. They never really thought about involving other people, so they didn’t know what to tell her.

“I’m sorry,” she caught their look. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but… it’s just… After what happened to Mr. Potter, I would have thought the teachers would have done something to make sure it didn’t happen to any of the others. I’m not exactly sure what’s been going on, but I do know that no one should be as clumsy as to have a _bookshelf_ fall over. And I think that some of these accidents have to occur when someone deliberately goes out of their way. That isn’t what an accident is, right?”

“What’s your name?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Riley. Um, Riley Walters,” she adjusted her black framed glasses.

“Okay, Riley,” she smiled. We appreciate your offer, but I’m afraid that we don’t have much to go on, right now. Maybe if we had witness accounts and information, but it’s something to think about, you know?”

“Oh, uh, right. But, if you need anything, I just wanted to offer what help I could give.”

“Just keep your eyes and ears open,” Harry told her. “If you hear anything, we would appreciate hearing it.”

“Okay.”

“Be careful, though,” Ron told her. “We don’t need to hear that _you’ve_ been put in the Hospital.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful, you can count on me.”

“Riley,” Hermione raised a finger. “Maybe there _is_ something you can do. Try gathering any eyewitness accounts and note the victim and what they were doing. That would be a big help.”

She nodded and darted off, determined to do her best.

Harry smiled widely after her. If they could get evidence of Carlin in the act, the teachers would have to listen. But, as Ron had said, they had to be careful lest they ended up in the Hospital, too.

And that was to be avoided at all costs, because Carlin was trying to kill Harry and that would be the perfect set-up if Harry was to end up injured and unable to fight back. Plus, Tony was counting on them to help him and that was even more incentive to be careful.

“Think he’s got it in for the school?” Ron suddenly frowned. “I mean, if Harry Potter’s killed in an accident while attending Hogwarts…”

“That’s a good point,” Hermione rubbed her forehead. Maybe Carlin wasn’t so much a Death Eater as he was a Death Eater’s lackey with his own agenda. “Either way, it’s just a matter of time before these accidents start getting serious and someone ends up dead.”

“Maybe that’s one of the points to this,” Harry shrugged. “Have my murder look like an accident – for whatever reason – or get me injured in one to provide an opportunity to take me out.”

“He’s probably got time to spare, then,” Ron leaned back in his chair. “I mean, if I wanted to kill Harry, I’d just get it out of the way and not this indirect, maybe-by-chance thing."

“Thanks, Ron.”

“No problem, mate,” he grinned back at him.

“But it could be part of something else, though,” Hermione mused. Then again, they didn’t have much to go on.

With AJ helping them with Tony and the MK, and now Riley helping with the Carlin side, Harry was fairly confident that these things would quickly be resolved, the school would be as safe as it could be, the MK would be caught, Tony’s name would be cleared and him back in contact, and the year would be as good as finished.

But… that still left the mysterious wizard that Carlin had met with last year and was presumably still in contact with. What was his role to play?

As the Trio went about the rest of their tasks before dinner, Harry felt secure in the knowledge that things were running smoothly. Once things resolved themselves, the Diary would be the most pressing matter to be dealt with.

It would be several months before the impact of the innocuous object would be realized, but it would be much, much sooner before Harry, Ron and Hermione would realize that just because something appears simple or cut and dried doesn’t always mean that it is.

** * 


	30. Chapter 30

The beginning of February started much like all the other Februaries that Harry had experienced over the years.

Valentine’s Day would soon be upon them and Harry was pretty sure that he’d have a _ton_ of things to do before that day.

Hermione had taken him and Ron aside and reported that Tony’s mobile was almost ready, but it still needed some time and it also needed to charge. “But we won’t know how successful any of it is until we try to make it work,” she warned.

It had been a necessary risk, especially with Tony’s safety and well-being on the line. There were two more victims to add to their list, as well.

Four more accidents were reported and the teachers had not been happy. Riley had come to them with the eyewitness accounts, but they didn’t seem all too useful. Still, information was information, so Hermione gathered them into her care for later study.

The teachers didn’t seem to know that anything malicious was going on, all intent on teaching the troublemakers a lesson. Harry understood that mischief makers disturbing school were one thing, but the troublemakers in question were not the same people over and over again. They were different people, the ones that ended up getting caught up in Carlin’s scheme.

Pranksters, on the other hand, seemed to be taking advantage of the chaos to do all sorts of mischief. This was made possible by the fact that Mrs. Norris was still stalking the Trio.

“She can’t know about what we’re doing,” Ron hissed.

“She doesn’t,” Hermione assured. “There’s no way she can.”

Harry thought it odd that the feline wouldn’t bother with anyone else except them, but he figured that she’d always had it in for him, anyway, and hoped she’d leave them alone soon.

** *

It all started to make a horrifying kind of sense one afternoon, when they were in the library before dinner.

Harry was nose deep in his Potions book when shouting reached his ears.

“What the bloody hell?” Ron frowned toward the front of the library.

“Harry! Ron! Hermione! Come quick!” Ginny and Neville skidded to a halt before them seconds later, breathing heavily.

“What’s going on?” Hermione stood. “Another accident?”

“No,” Neville shook his head frantically. “Agent… he’s trying to eat Mrs. Norris!”

“The dungeons,” Ginny gasped out as the Trio shot past them. Ginny and Neville shared a look before making their way after them.

The Trio didn’t need to ask where in the dungeons, as they heard shouting and yelling to guide them. Skidding around a corner, they saw a group of students crowding around an unused classroom’s door. Barking could be heard inside.

“Agent!” Harry surged through the crowd to the door, Ron and Hermione behind him as he stumbled into the room. Straightening, the sight of the scene unfolding before him made him pause.

Crookshanks and five other cats were flanking Agent as they cornered Mrs. Norris in one part of the room. Two of the unfamiliar cats were eying some Seventh Year Slytherins as they nursed scratches and bites.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Ginny and Neville piled into the room after them. “One of the Second Years heard barking,” Neville puffed, leaning against a desk. “We followed the Ravenclaw’s directions and found the Slytherins trying to contain the fuss.”

“Not like it did any good,” one of them spat. “Potter’s dog chased Norris all over the school! The teachers have been called for.”

“But it wasn’t just the dog,” his year mate shook her head. “Granger’s cat followed and then these other ones showed up. Maisy doesn’t attack others like this,” she looked over at a pretty, sleek calico who was bristled and hissing at Mrs. Norris – as were all the felines on offensive. Norris was hissing back, curled against the wall she’d been cornered against and just as fluffed. Agent was growling deep in his throat, ready to pounce to prevent escape.

The Gryffindors were joined by a few Ravenclaws, one of whom being the owner of one of the cats, before Dumbledore led the teachers to the scene.

By that time, not even the Trio could calm Agent or Crookshanks down – much less the other cats.

“Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore eyed him. “What seems to be the trouble?”

Filch staggered in with a snarled response, “The dog is the trouble! I knew this was going to happen! Nothing but trouble – and now he’s got my poor Mrs. Norris in his sights!”

“Why wouldn’t he have gone after her before?” Ron scowled. “He doesn’t chase the other cats!”

“We will decide what to do about Agent at a later date,” Dumbledore cut off any response. “For the moment, let us try to calm the situation.”

“We’ve tried, Headmaster,” one of the Slytherins told him. “The other cats won’t let us come any closer.”

“Does anyone know what sparked this?” Sprout looked around. No one in or out knew a thing other than the fact that it all started near the tree line past Hagrid’s Hut.

“She rarely leaves the castle,” Filch dismissed. “Mrs. Norris is always inside, ready to catch misbehaving students in the act.”

“Not like it’s done much help,” Harry scowled back at him. “You haven’t caught the other pranksters, have you? She’s been following us for ages and other students are taking advantage of that. They aren’t getting in trouble because Norris is always on our trail!”

“That would mean mischief,” Snape narrowed his black eyes at him shrewdly. “One can only imagine why the feline would focus all attention on three particular students.”

“There’s something wrong with Mrs. Norris.”

Everyone in the room turned to AJ, who had managed to sneak into the room without anyone realizing. She met their gazes squarely before pointing to the feline backed against the wall.

“She’s been following the Trio, even though they haven’t been doing a thing. Harry’s right about other students getting away with trouble since they know that Norris is occupied with someone else.”

“Ms. Johnson,” Flitwick piped up. “Explain your statement that there’s something wrong with Mrs. Norris.”

“Crookshanks,” she shrugged. “He’s half-Kneazle, isn’t he? I’ve been watching Mrs. Norris, too, since Ron said something about it a few days ago. She really hasn’t been looking at anyone else.”

“Are you insinuating that someone’s bewitched her?” Hermione frowned at first her, then Norris.

“Nonsense,” Filch scowled. “Can’t be done.”

Through all this, Harry watched Agent, who seemed to have taken to keeping an ear on the conversation. It was as he was about to turn back to the conversation himself that he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Once he realized what the movement was – and what it meant -, he immediately turned to McGonagall. “Professor, maybe you can see if AJ’s right,” he broke in before anything else could be said. “You’re an Animagus, aren’t you?”

“Very good, Potter,” she nodded at his suggestion. She gave him a small smile before turning into her own feline form. She then stalked forward to the nearest cat and meowed at it.

The exchange was one that Harry would remember for a long time to come.

McGonagall listened as the cat made noises at her. Crookshanks put in some comments, too.

Fifteen minutes of hissing, yowling, meowing, growling and barking later, she stalked over to Dumbledore, who seemed to understand.

“Argus,” he turned to the caretaker. “Mrs. Norris is to be taken to the Hospital Wing. You will both wait there. Harry, Agent is looking a tad exhausted. Why don’t you and your friends collect your pets and I shall meet you in Gryffindor Tower when I have finished?”

Now that attention was being given, Agent started to relax. Norris took advantage of that and tried to run, but Snape got a hold of her and dropped her into the carrier that one of the cat owners offered the use of.

On their way back to the Tower, Neville frowned at Harry. “How in Merlin’s name did you think of Professor McGonagall’s Animagus as a go-between?”

“Agent,” he grinned. Back in the classroom, Harry had caught sight of Agent’s paw hitting a vertical crack in the stone floor as AJ was talking. It was the same way of saying ‘yes’ that he’d done when the Trio had found the mobile. Plus, it was a reminder that Agent wasn’t a true ‘pet’.

“He’d done it before, then,” Ginny nodded, the Trio explaining a fictional scenario where they’d first seen Agent use the technique.

“So, Norris was bewitched,” Ron scrubbed a hand through his red hair. “Well, if I was reading things right.”

“By who?” Hermione frowned worriedly. “None of the students are advanced enough to perform that kind of magic.”

“Carlin could,” Neville pointed out. This was in reference to a class that the Sixth Years had around Halloween, where bats had been let loose in the room and Carlin had tried teaching them repelling charms for animals.

“So,” Ginny frowned. “Is he a Death Eater?”

“We tried asking a teacher,” Harry shrugged. “Now, they’ll have to believe us.”

“But why make the cat follow us?” Ron had to ask.

No one could answer.

** *

Later that night, Dumbledore and McGonagall finally showed up.

“Ms. Johnson was correct about Mrs. Norris having an enchantment cast on her,” the Headmaster sighed tiredly. “The three of you should be on your guards.”

“But why was she following us?” Hermione asked.

“I’m afraid that will not be known until we’ve caught whoever did this,” he shook his head. “For now, we can only speculate.”

“We are fortunate that young Agent is living up to his name,” McGonagall gave Sirius an odd smile. “Always keeping an eye open for curious matters, although, I am equally sure that Crookshanks was the one to draw attention to the situation.”

“Yes, Professor,” Harry scratched Agent behind the ears. “We’re very proud of them.”

When Dumbledore left a few minutes later, McGonagall lingered.

“The magic bind should begin to wear off soon,” she mused, studying the dog thoughtfully.

“I know we’ll all feel better when it does,” Hermione nodded.

“Indeed,” she hummed. “Well, I will say that there will be quite a few matters cleared up when our friend returns to normal. Wouldn’t you say, Agent?” She departed with a good evening and another smile that Harry couldn’t make heads or tails of.

“I’m not sure what that was about,” Hermione sighed. “But I think we should call it a night.”

** *

 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has evidently turned into a novel with over 600 pages.

“I hate Valentine’s Day,” Ron groaned as he pried his eyes open.

Harry silently agreed as he fought against the energy drain that had plagued the Trio all year.

The drain seemed to have no set pattern, rhyme, or reason, but it was still annoying even though Palmer had explained that it wouldn’t start to ease up until Tony had resurfaced.

“I can’t wait until this case is over,” Harry finally stumbled out of bed.

When they met up with Hermione, it was clear that she’d been affected as well, but there was also an excitement in her eyes.

“It’s done,” she announced. “Now all we need to do is leave it alone while it charges and we should know the clue by tonight!”

“Well done, Hermione,” Ron awkwardly patted his beaming friend on the shoulder.

“I’m sure Tony will be proud of you,” Harry added.

“I really hope so,” Hermione sighed. “I’d hate to come across as a disappointing catch.”

They snickered to themselves as they headed down to breakfast, where Valentine’s Day had definitely arrived at Hogwarts.

Red, white and pink hearts fluttered all over the hall, sprinkling confetti on unsuspecting students as they ate and read cards.

“This year’s kind of tame,” Hermione mused, brushing some stray confetti off the table.

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Harry told her. “It’s loads better than Second Year.”

“Is it true that Professor Lockhart was an idiot?”

 “Bloody hell!” Ron jumped half a mile at AJ’s question as the First Year seemingly materialized next to his elbow.

“AJ,” Hermione put a hand over her racing heart. “Don’t just appear like that, alright?”

“Where’d you come from, anyway?” Harry frowned at her.

“The bathroom,” she shrugged. She extricated three cards from her pockets and held them out as the Benson girls came to join them. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Thanks,” Ron gathered his four cards. Others came by to give them other things and the Post gave them even more.

“Palmer and Mac even sent something,” Hermione detached the Muggle chocolate kiss from the card. “It’s American.”

Ron was fascinated by Muggle things much like his father was and American Muggle things were novel.

Even Ginny had received some candy from Palmer and she and Ron spent a few moments marveling at them before realizing that it tasted just as good as it looked.

Hermione had had some exposure to it and didn’t nearly make as much of a scene, but Harry just smiled at his and stashed it in his bag.

It was a quiet morning in class and Harry was convinced that it would be an easy rest of the day.

Heading for lunch, however, he and Ron were talking about the upcoming match between Slytherin and Hufflepuff when Hermione suddenly gasped and pushed them into an empty classroom.

“Hermione, what in Merlin’s name – ”

“Shh!” she hissed at Harry, whipping around frantically as she looked for somewhere to hide. “Carlin and that wizard are coming! Find somewhere to hide!”

“Why didn’t you say so?!” Ron hissed back.

It looked like there wasn’t anywhere to hide, being a big room and a small closet off to the side that wouldn’t hold the three of them.

Harry searched all over the room and it seemed that they were going to be found out when, on his fifth pass of a section of wall started to open.

“What the bloody hell?” Ron blinked at it before Hermione pushed him toward it.

“I don’t care right now! Just get in!”

The Trio piled in and the wall slid shut behind them just as a familiar voice began to fill the silence.

“I realize that, but there isn’t much I can do without causing some kind of suspicion,” Carlin sounded frustrated as the door was shut. “Michel, you know I’m counting on you!”

“Calm, cousin,” the other voice drifted to the eavesdroppers, wide-eyed at this new piece of information. “Time hasn’t run out, yet.”

“Don’t sound so cocky,” he snapped. “You haven’t found him yet and –”

“I am trying to not arouse suspicion, myself. This is far from easy for the both of us and it will not do to be hasty this far into the game! Now,” he calmed, “there are many parts to this plan and we need to focus on the parts assigned to us. My part is well under way as we speak and all who could possibly see through us are so easily thrown off. You may yet have your part fulfilled, but you are the most vulnerable of the both of us. You need to be careful, even with my distraction.”

“But the Hufflepuff- ”

“Is not to be repeated. You obviously hadn’t accounted for sleepwalking young students. And almost drowning her almost ended the plan before it was begun!”

“But it belonged to –”

“No. More. Are we clear? We are close and don’t need another slip up like that.”

The Trio stayed completely still, breathing as shallowly as they could.

Harry remembered AJ’s suspicions about what happened – and the missing ribbon – and closed his eyes. She was right. She really _had_ been targeted because of a hair ribbon. And there he was, humoring her completely mad ideas.

He owed her an apology.

And more.

But Carlin’s cousin said he had a part to play and Harry idly wondered who it was that he was looking for as the pair started up again.

“The Brat is always around those friends of his,” Carlin huffed. “They already seem suspicious of me and I can’t begin to get close to them.”

“Have you done anything to them?"

“No! Nothing.”

“Don’t try too hard, then. Give them time. In the meantime, I’ve noticed you are lacking in staff companions.”

“They seem to preoccupied to deal with me. Severus threatened to throw me to the Giant Squid if I didn’t get out of his sight!”

They fell silent for a few moments before the other finally answered.

“Perhaps you are trying too hard. The Brat isn’t the only one you need to get the trust of. I am unsure if students like you and your classes.”

The door to the classroom opened and Carlin responded, “I have come up with the perfect opportunity to gather opinions from the students…”

The door closed on their fading voices and Harry breathed out in relief.

“That was close,” Hermione slumped against the wall. “Too close.”

“AJ was attacked because of a ribbon,” Harry rubbed his eyes. “I don’t understand.”

“They’re both mental,” Ron shivered, sliding down his side of the wall with a sigh. “Killing someone over a ribbon? Mental.”

“We can’t trust them,” Hermione settled on the floor next to him. “No matter what, we need to keep him far away from Harry.”

“Like we need to be reminded,” Ron scowled at her.

Harry tuned them out to look around at the room they found themselves in.

It was big enough to hold the three of them, plus another, comfortably stretched out. The ceiling was slightly higher than Tony was tall, who could stand without hitting his head. It was a comfortable little room, but Harry couldn’t help thinking it was familiar somehow.

“Handy, isn’t it?” Ron followed his gaze.

“Well, it’s helped _us_ ,” Hermione straightened her hair and top. “I wonder if this was part of the school.”

“Had to be,” Ron lifted a shoulder. “The Room of Requirement, remember?”

“Think the Marauders knew about this?” Harry had to ask.

“We can ask Padfoot when the bind wears off,” Hermione stood. “Let’s go to lunch. There’s nothing else that we can do right now.”

“I’d agree with you,” Ron sighed, standing as well, “but I can’t see a way out.”

They couldn’t get out the way they got in, so they looked for another way out. Lighting their wands, they looked for anything they could use.

Ten minutes later, they were no closer to getting out.

“There _has_ to be a way out,” Hermione insisted. “I don’t know if this room’s always been here or not, but we can’t be the only ones who know about it.”

Harry stared at the place where they got in. There was just something at the back of his mind that was trying to tell him something, but he just couldn’t reach it. “Maybe it’s just like Diagon Alley?”

“How’d we count it, though?” Ron put his hands on his hips and narrowed his blue eyes at the wall.

Harry sighed and leaned his forehead against it.

What if they were stuck? Tony would probably hear about it once it became known that they had disappeared and would want to find them, making it possible for the teachers to catch him and turn him in to the authorities and the Trio would probably never hear from him again – never mind the marriage bond that would more than likely kill them all from no contact –, all of which working on the assumption that they wouldn’t die of lack of food or water in the meantime. Should this scenario occur, the real MK would get away with murder and Adrienne Lewis would never know what became of her –

“The diary!”

“What about it?” Ron frowned at him.

“I read it, too, Harry,” Hermione shook her head. “So did Ron, and there was no mention –”

“No, not _Adrienne’s_ diary, Tom Riddle’s,” he corrected, thoughts going all over the place before stopping at a near forgotten memory while with Tony in Diagon Alley.

*

 _‘So he_ was _an idiot,’ Tony turned a Lockhart book around in his hands as Harry finished ranting about how utterly_ useless _the man had been. ‘Glad you guys got out of the Chamber.’_

_‘Yeah,’ he nodded absently before realizing that he hadn’t told the Italian about the Chamber of Secrets. Before he could ask, however, Tony smiled sheepishly._

_‘Dumbledore may have told me all about that. He’s proud of you and your friend, you know.’_

_Harry relaxed and shook his head. ‘We were lucky Fawkes appeared when he did or we would never have made it.’_

_‘Sure, you would have,’ Tony shrugged. ‘You just needed to say the correct spell.’_

_‘What do you mean?’_

_‘You know the unlocking spell, don’t you? Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You can unlock secret rooms, if you know how to.’_

_‘Don’t you need the –’_

_‘Password? Yes. But, if you find yourself stuck in a building like Hogwarts, the room may not have one immediately evident – if at all. In those situations, all you have to do is put your wand to the place you came from, imagine it opening, then say slowly and clearly –’_

_*_

The word slipped past his lips and he sighed in relief as the wall slid open.

“Brilliant,” Ron grinned as Hermione beamed and herded the two out.

“Maybe they teach the spell in American schools,” she mused as they hurried to what was left of lunch. “I’ve never heard of it.”

“Who knows what they teach over there,” Ron shrugged. “I’m just glad to be out.”

Neither could disagree.

** *

Clouds gathered overhead as the Trio headed out to Care of Magical Creatures with the rest of their classmates later that afternoon.

“It looks like snow,” Neville looked up as he caught up with them.

“It’s too bloody cold for rain,” Ron scowled.

Vince trudged along next to them. “Are you all staying for Easter?”

“No,” Ron huffed. “Mum wants us to spend some time with Fleur’s family before the wedding.” He turned to Harry and Hermione, “But Mum says she and Dumbledore have a plan to get you two to the Burrow the last week of the break. You have to stay with your families until then. Well, Harry’ll have to stay at school, anyway.”

“Too right, I’m staying here,” he scowled. He didn’t like the thought that he was going to be watched all day, every day, but where else would he go?

“Harry,” Vince spoke up hesitantly. “Mum says I could have friends over. If you want to stay with us for a week, you’ll be very welcome.”

“Why a week?” Ron questioned.

“To visit relatives and other people the second week,” he shrugged. “It’s a tradition.”

“I think I’ll take you up on that,” Harry told him.

“That’s a good idea,” Hermione told Harry and Ron as the other two went on ahead. “That way, Carlin will have a hard time getting to Harry.”

“Yeah, but Harry would still have to stay a week,” Ron pointed out.

“We’ll think of something,” Hermione hugged Harry’s arm in reassurance. “If it comes to it, I know Mum and Dad will let you stay with us.”

That was all they could say about it as Hagrid got the class together.

As far as Hagrid’s classes went, this one was fairly tame.

They trooped out to the paddock and spent most of the class running after purple fuzzy … things that liked masquerading as hair accessories.

“Still babies,” Hagrid told them. “Not fully grown jus’ yet.”

“What will they be growing into?” Ron huffed. “And do I want to know?”

“They are mostly pests,” Hermione, as usual, answered. “Not much is really known about them, since they don’t just stay in one country. I think they’re even found in North America.”

“Think Tony’s seen them as adults?” Harry grabbed one from Ron’s hair.

“I’d be surprised if he didn’t.”

Hagrid called them before they could catch all the bits of fuzz and told them that he would take care of it. “An’ if ya fin’ one runnin’ around somewhere,” he added, “make sure ta bring it back.”

“They get in everywhere, don’t they?” Dean huffed a sigh as he extracted yet another fuzz ball from his robes.

“Really,” Ron watched him go back to Hagrid. “What do they grow up to be?”

They spent some time thawing out before Charms. All through the class, though, Harry noticed Hermione frowning at her book and didn’t know what to make of it.

It wasn’t until they were trooping to the Tower before dinner that Harry casually wanted to know what Hermione had been looking for.

“The charm Tony taught you. I couldn’t find it in the book,” she shook her head.

“Maybe he got it on the job,” Ron suggested. That sounded reasonable to them.

Hermione resolved to ask when they cleared his name, then promptly remembered the mobile and flew up the stairs, leaving the boys to wait anxiously for her return.

She may have done it on purpose or it was just luck, but the Common Room was almost empty when they heard from her again – in the form of a shriek.

And it wasn’t just _any_ shriek, oh no.

It was her ‘Success! Finally, the next piece of the puzzle is at hand!’ shriek.

“We’ve done it!” she almost floated down the girls’ staircase with Tony’s mobile in hand. “Good Merlin, we did it!”

“We got the clue?” Ron and Harry crowded her to watch as she turned it on. Almost immediately, messages, missed calls and voicemails came up.

“Alright,” Harry scratched the back of his neck. “Where are we going to start?”

Hermione had more experience with mobile phones, so she got the message notices to go somewhere for later. She fiddled with it, frown growing deeper at every dead end, until they could no longer wait until someone came looking for them.

After she carefully hid it away again, the discouraged friends made their way to dinner and their black moods did not go unnoticed by the others.

“What’s wrong?” Neville wanted to know, nudging Harry’s favorites in his direction as Gryffindor Benson loaded Hermione’s plate, the First Year and her sisters knowing how attached to the Trio AJ was and were determined to keep them going.

“Is it because you won’t be able to stay with us for most of the break?” Ginny poked her brother to keep him eating.

Not that she wouldn’t take this to her grave, but Ginny worried when Ron ate less than she was used to seeing him eat. She had heard – from Diagon Alley and elsewhere – that boys had eating disorders just as bad as girls did and Ginny had promised herself to keep her eye on her brother – the closest one to her – from developing one. This un-Ron-like behavior distressed her and she didn’t even need to know what was bothering him. She just knew that Ron was Ron when he started eating enough to feed small armies.

Dinner went on with the students trying to cheer up their Trio, but with little success.

The three were drowning themselves in pudding when AJ swung by.

“Maybe you can get through to them,” Seamus told her. “Sometin’s put’em in a mood, alright.”

‘We’ll probably never see Tony again,” Harry meanwhile despaired. He was torn between being glad that Tony was in hiding and concerned for that reason. He wanted to get to talk to his friend again, but – at the same time – no one could get them to tell information that they didn’t know.

“Can I help with anything?”

“Yeah,” Ron groused. “Tell us how you just appear like that. It’ll help us not have heart attacks.”

“He doesn’t mean that, AJ,” Hermione immediately spoke up to smooth ruffled feathers. “We just ran into a dead end on a project.”

“A project?” she tilted her head and met Harry’s green eyes with a chillingly knowing gaze. Harry had the irrational thought that, despite all of their precautions, AJ _knew_.

Not that she didn’t already know that they were helping their friend, but that she knew _how_ they were doing it.

“A personal project,” he eyed her.

“One that you’re stuck on.”

“Yes.”

Neville rummaged through his pockets next to them and huffed a sigh.

“Lost it again, did you?” Seamus had to tease.

“I might have put it in my bag,” he frowned. He left for the Tower, taking some dessert with him, and others soon followed.

“Neville seems to forget quite a bit, don’t you think?” AJ watched him go with a smile. “It’s a wonder, really, that he’s not learned to send himself notes.”

Hermione stifled a gasp, going rigid next to him as AJ moved on with a wave. “Good Merlin, how could I have missed that?”

The boys were herded back to Gryffindor Tower where Hermione sat the two down before racing back upstairs to get the mobile.

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before,” she shook her head as she came back. Her fingers flew over the keys and suddenly stopped. “I wasn’t looking in the Drafts,” she lit up with a triumphant smile as she turned the screen toward them, the screen displaying a list of unsent messages. The most recent one had the subject line ‘Trio’.

“Well, open it!” Ron told her. “I’d like to see what we’re doing next.”

She opened it and frowned.

“Is there something there?” Harry questioned, heart racing at the thought that they’d gone through – _done_ – so much, only to have there be absolutely nothing to gain from it.

“Hermione,” Ron said grimly. “ _Tell_ us there’s something there.”

“Yes, there is,” she assured, “but… I’m not even where to begin.”

They looked over her shoulders to read the short message on screen:

_‘Find gold star.’_

There was a moment of complete silence as the message sunk in.

“I think,” Ron began, “I’m calling it a night.”

“There are so many things this could mean,” Hermione’s voice was shaky, as if on the verge of tears.

Harry would have felt like crying, too, but Tony’s clue gave them something else to concentrate on. “Ron’s right,” he decided. “Let’s go to sleep, then – then we’ll come back a bit later and- and-”

“Right,” Hermione agreed, composing herself. “Tony’s spicing up our Sixth Year, isn’t he? If we want to be anywhere near as good as he is at being an American Agent, we will have to rise to the challenge to meet him in the middle.”

“Can’t be hard, right?” Ron grinned at them. “After what we’ve already been through the past six or more years, this’ll be a walk to the Pitch.”

** *

 


	32. Chapter 32

They went to sleep and did come back to the clue, but they were nowhere close to having any idea what Tony’s ‘gold star’ could possibly be referring to.

It was hard, as the days passed, to not give up hope.

Easter was a short month away when the next step – almost literally – fell on top of them.

Harry was sitting in the Common Room floor, Agent draped over his legs, staring at the fire as he carded his fingers through Agent’s fur as his thoughts whirled all over the place.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but it was well into the afternoon by the time he roused. “Think he’s okay, Agent?” he worried his bottom lip. They couldn’t think of anything that Tony could possibly be talking about as he told them to ‘find gold star’.

Rubbing his eyes under his glasses, he coaxed Agent up and levered himself up, only to startle violently as someone came around the corner and almost tripped over him.

“Good Merlin,” Palmer – because that’s who it was – sagged back against the couch, hand against his heart. “I _swear_ I didn’t see you.”

“Were you looking for me?” he felt his heart slowly calm.

Palmer studied him for a long moment, Agent nudging up against him with a whine. “I wasn’t sure before, but I am now,” he muttered to himself. Louder, he said, “Yeah. You and the other two.” He hesitated, but went on, “I’ve had a gut feeling that I should bring you in on this and, if there’s anything I’ve learned at NCIS, it’s that I should always listen to my gut.”

“I’ll get them,” Harry felt a flare of victory and not just a little bit of relief at the idea that they would get some help with Tony’s clue. “Want to go upstairs?”

Harry used his ever present radio to call Ron and Hermione and they soon met him at the foot of the stairs. They exchanged a look before climbing up together.

“So, Palmer,” Hermione settled on Harry’s bed. “What brings you here?”

“Wait,” Harry got an idea. He rummaged through his trunk as Ron made sure the door was locked with Agent standing guard outside. Hermione beamed in approval as Harry gave her some of the hair ribbons and she tied one around the bemused American’s wrist.

“It’s a thing,” she told him. “We’ve charmed it so that you can’t lie to us.”

Harry knew for _fact_ that was a lie. Palmer, on the other hand, didn’t need to know that and, before long, they were all settled.

“I guess I’ll start, then,” Palmer looked around at them. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but – ”

“We know, Palmer,” Hermione told him. “We’ve been following the Ministry Killer and it didn’t take long after being questioned for us to realize that Tony was being accused of being the MK.”

If anything, Palmer looked relieved at that. “Then we’re already on the same page,” he told them. “I don’t know all the details, but I know that the Killer showed up shortly after Tony disappeared.”

“Did you know from the beginning?” Harry asked.

“No, I didn’t,” he shook his head firmly. “I’d guess that they started questioning people once they got enough evidence to point to Tony being the Killer.”

“You don’t believe them?” Ron frowned.

“To be honest, no. For one thing, Tony wouldn’t start going after other Aurors for no reason. I knew that witnesses say that someone who fit Tony’s description was see in the area hours before the Killings, but that doesn’t necessarily anything. And once I started thinking about it, his being set up started looking more likely. In fact, on several occasions before he left, he asked me if I felt like I was being watched.”

“That must be it, then,” Hermione brightened. “Whoever must have been watching Tony was already planning something and needed a scapegoat.”

“But where’s Tony?” Palmer frowned. “Why would they be watching him in the first place?”

Harry felt Ron and Hermione look at him and sighed. “We think he’s lying low. He might be investigating the case by himself right now.”

Palmer immediately looked over at him, eyes widening as realization dawned. “You’ve heard from him.”

“In a way, yes,” Hermione took over. Harry let her, because he wasn’t exactly sure how to explain without telling him about Sirius’ involvement. “We got something from him before Christmas and we’ve only recently come to understand what he wants.” She went on to explain that Tony had – somehow – got his mobile to them with instructions to keep it to themselves until otherwise told to.

Palmer looked thoughtful at that. “Probably for the best,” he told them. “Lately, the investigators are starting to get a little desperate. That’s why I was questioned. They don’t know why Tony snapped or how he’s picking the victims. Do you have some idea?”

“We got his mobile on and we have the message ‘find gold star’.”

Palmer obviously knew something because he jolted. “Are you serious? He left it?” he went quiet, lost in thought. “I think, if he’s talking about what I think he’s talking about, I know what it is. I just don’t know _where_ it is. I’ve seen him use it, but I don’t know where he keeps it, because he doesn’t have it just anywhere.”

“The Easter holiday is coming up,” Ron told him, brightening at the prospect of answers. “I can’t, but maybe Harry or Hermione can go help.”

“Yes,” Hermione grinned. “I can write to Mum and Dad and tell them I won’t be able to come back. Oh, I’ll need to ask Vince if I can stay with him. I know Harry’s already going.”

Palmer nodded excitedly. “Yeah, and we could – oh. Would you be okay going to America? It should be in his apartment somewhere.”

“Let’s just focus on getting permission first,” Harry interrupted. “We can’t go anything else just yet.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” she nodded. “You’re right, Harry. We’ll do what we can on our end.”

“And I’ll wait until then to start on mine,” Palmer agreed.

Harry suddenly realized what was bothering him about this entire conversation. “Palmer? Not that we aren’t grateful, but why now? And usually when an adult finds out that we’re keeping something from them…”

The older wizard sighed. “Like I said, people are getting desperate to find him and lock him up. Tony’s helped me so many times over the years and he’s a great friend. He’s been in the law enforcement field for so long that I’d expect him to know better than to leave a trace. Not that I’m saying he’s killed someone in cold blood, but – should that come to pass – he wouldn’t be so sloppy as to be seen by several people. I don’t want him to get in trouble for someone else, so I was hoping to run things by you guys, but it looks like I didn’t need to worry.

“But for your other question, I’m worried about what they would do to Tony if they catch him. If there’s another person keeping Tony safe, I’ll welcome the help.”

Harry was satisfied with that and saw that the others were, too.

“We’ve got it hidden,” Hermione went on. “We won’t let them get Tony.”

The implications – both to Tony himself and concerning the marriage bond – made them all agree to keep Tony as safe as they could.

That meant that Palmer and the Trio were the _only_ people to know about the mobile. Well, outside of Agent, but Harry was sure that he wouldn’t say anything, being in the same situation himself.

* **


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head-canon, the year is about 2008.

 

Vince agreed that Hermione could stay with them, but the problem came from her parents.

Harry and Ron were taking advantage of the mostly empty Hall at lunch on Saturday when she stormed over to drop next to Harry on the bench. 

“They said no.”

“What?” Ron frowned. “But what is Harry gonna do?”

“Yeah,” Harry knew well that he would need Hermione if he wanted to find Tony’s gold star before time was up. “Why not?”

“Mrs. Muldoon wrote Mum to make sure it was alright, and she swore that she’d be there, but Mum doesn’t want me to be the only girl. Ginny can’t do it, and I would rather not subject Vince’s mum to the girls in the dorm.”

That _was_ a problem.

Hermione couldn’t say why she wanted to stay so badly at the risk of revealing what was going on, but Harry could even admit to not knowing how things would go if it was only him. Palmer wouldn’t be much help, not wanting to draw suspicion to himself from anyone.

“Mum said that she’d let me go if I could find another girl to come with us.”

But, as the day went on, all possible candidates were crossed off the list because of plans elsewhere and Hermione was even desperate enough to ask a Slytherin.

“Well,” Ron sighed as they watched the Third Year head to dinner. “That was a good try.”

She’d been genuinely apologetic, but her Aunt didn’t want her associating with ‘those people’ any more than she had to. Harry’d just been astonished that there were a small number of Snakes who didn’t hate them – much – on sight.

“Now what?” Hermione rubbed a hand over her mouth.

They started for the Great Hall, hopes low, and joined everyone else streaming in for dinner.

When they arrived at their ‘usual area’, they were surprised to find all three Benson girls sitting there with AJ. The Hufflepuff looked unusually solemn as she picked at what Ginny had dumped onto her plate.

“What’s this, then?” Ron tugged on Ravenclaw’s purple ribbons.

“Not that we aren’t happy to see you,” Hermione scowled at him before smiling reassuringly at the girls. “It’s been a while since we’ve had the pleasure of dining with you.”

“AJ was feeling blue,” Hufflepuff offered. “She seemed to like the three of you, so…”

“What happened, AJ?” Harry nudged her arm, sitting next to her. “Who challenged you to a Wizard’s Duel?”

“I’ll beat them up for you,” Ron cheerfully volunteered.

AJ mumbled something too quiet for anyone to hear and shook her head.

“We don’t know,” Gryffindor shrugged. “We can’t get anything out of her.”

The group tried making her feel better, but only to little success. It was as the triplets trickled out with a majority of others that AJ seemed to relax more.

“What really happened?” AJ looked at Harry and sighed.

“I don’t want to go back for Easter. I want to stay here.”

“What did your Foster Mum say?” Harry gently coaxed.

“She wanted me to spend time at the house, but I’d rather not and I don’t want to lie and say I was invited to someone’s house when I haven’t. Piper would just check up on my claim and know I was lying."

“Why don’t you want to go back?”

“I just don’t,” she shook her head.

Harry completely understood, not wanting to go back to the Dursley house for the summer himself. And then, it was like a light went off as he glanced at Hermione.

“You know, AJ,” he said for Ron and Hermione to hear. “Vince invited me and Hermione to stay for the break, but Hermione’s mum doesn’t want her as the only girl.”

His friend caught on and straightened. “I know Vince’s mum would love to have you,” Hermione smiled. “I really want to stay with Harry and Vince, AJ, but Harry doesn’t feel comfortable being by himself and I’d like to go, too.”

AJ slowly looked between the two of them. “I can stay?” she looked like she couldn’t believe it.

“We can write your Mum,” Ron chipped in. “I’m sure she’ll let you.”

The smile taking over the First Year’s face was one of the brightest that Harry had ever seen directed toward him as she eagerly agreed.

“But we’ll just be staying with them a week,” Harry pointed out as they returned to the Tower. “Then it’ll be another week before we head to the Burrow. AJ has to head back home eventually and we still have to go… you know where.”

“Harry, Harry, Harry,” Hermione wrapped an arm around his. “After all this time, I think you would know me well enough to know that, when it comes to things like this, you can leave it to me.”

** End part One 

 


	34. Chapter 34

“I can’t thank you enough for inviting us,” Harry told Vince as the group headed for the other boy’s house from where they saw Ron off at Hogsmeade Station.

“I can’t thank you enough for accepting,” he grinned back, both of them following AJ and Hermione as they let Agent walk ahead.

Harry couldn’t believe how easy it had been.

Whatever Hermione did, she got AJ invited to the Benson house next week, though AJ would still have to go home for the last week. Harry and Hermione would then go to America to look for the gold star before going to the Burrow and, hopefully, none would be the wiser.

Vince had managed to get his mum to hold off on visiting friends and family until next week, letting everyone be there the first week of the Easter holiday before all went their separate ways.

“It was our pleasure,” Hermione looked back with a grin.

“Yes, thank you!” AJ skipped after Agent.

Harry hadn’t wanted to tell AJ what they were really after, because, even though she had told them that she wanted to help, he didn’t want her to get in trouble on the off chance that someone found them out.

“We really need to thank Hermione,” Vince modestly deflected. “It was her study schedules that let us have the least amount of homework.”

Harry couldn’t have agreed more.

Since they got the okay, Hermione could be found with the triplets, AJ, Vince, Harry and Ron in either the Gryffindor Common Room, the Library or Study Hall, all eight of them working hard so that they would have a relatively easy holiday to have more fun.

They had achieved quite a bit of work and Hermione had beamed proudly at them last night when they finished three quarters of their assigned work.

Hermione blushed in pleasure at the praise.

The quartet – and dog – arrived at the Muldoon household shortly after.

A modest two-story house, it had dark blue shutters and a light red trim. There was a small front garden and a front yard to play games in.

“The Forest surrounds the back yard,” Vince told them, leading the way down the path to the front door. “There’s a place that we can fly, Harry, and Agent can run around the clearing. It’s all safe here,” he reassured. “Oh, and Agent? If you have a mind to dig up gardens, Mum has a place that she wants you to have a go at.”

“Are you sure?” Harry wanted to know.

“Yup. Mum’s been wanting to dig the patch up for ages, but she’s never been able to and we can’t figure out why.”

Vince let them go in first and, once again, Harry was reminded of not making assumptions based on appearance alone.

From the inside, the house was bigger and there was the smell of cookies that coaxed them into the kitchen where Mrs. Muldoon waited for them.

“Well, now,” the middle aged witch smiled brightly at them. “Isn’t this a fine group. Agent, of course, Harry, Hermione and AJ. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay with us.”

“We will,” Hermione spoke for them. “Where should we put our things/”

She had told them that they only needed to bring one or two bags, she and Dumbledore assuring them that their things would already be there.

Hermione wasn’t taking chances, so she dug through her trunk and made AJ take the mobile, not at all guilty of playing the ‘ally’ card – even if she still didn’t understand it – and Harry took the tokens and Adrienne’s diary with him. That little flower charm that he’d found in Hogsmeade outside the Post office was dropped into the bag with the tokens.

“We’ll take them upstairs in a bit,” Mrs. Muldoon told her.

After a little snack of cookies and milk, Vince took them upstairs. The entire second floor was for guests and the two residents.

“Do you have a lot of family?” AJ asked.

“Family and friends,” Vince told her. “Some were here for Christmas.”

Harry’s room was across the hall from Vince’s and the girls were a little further down in a shared room.

Harry liked the gold and red color scheme. A blue rug lay under a four poster bed that looked king of like the one he had at school and a set of night tables on either end. A small wardrobe sat next to a dresser and Harry discovered his clothes already put in place, his trunk set on the wardrobe floor.

“Do you like it?” Vince poked his head in.

“Yes,” Harry smiled back, coming out into the hall. “I’m going to enjoy it here.”

“We can go out if you want,” they went down the hall. “Mum’s got me running errands.”

“If you don’t mind,” Harry agreed. “I don’t know this area well.”

“Exploring, it is, then,” Vince knocked on a door with the girls’ names on it. “We’re going exploring. Do you want to come?”

AJ let them in and Harry was impressed with the intertwined color schemes. The single bed was big enough for the two to share, and even some room for Ginny, Luna Lovegood and one of the triplets to sleep comfortably. The room was pretty much a mirror of Harry’s room, only made for two girls.

Harry wondered how AJ was taking it – not completely for or against Hermione - , but she seemed content with it.

The Hufflepuff peeked under the bed – the one that looked like two four posters stuck together – and grinned. “Harry, is your bed from school here, too?”

“I thought it was just me,” he admitted.

Vince rubbed the back of his neck. “Mum thought it’d be a nice touch of familiarity.”

“It’s my bed and AJ’s put together,” Hermione explained as they headed back downstairs. Harry held AJ back a little as Vince and Hermione started on about how to transfer things from the school to the house.

“Something wrong, Harry?” AJ blinked up at him.

“I don’t want to be nosy, but… are you alright with Hermione staying with you?”

She looked at the ground for a few moments. “Yes. I think so. Maybe I should start getting to know her,” she mused. “She _is_ one of our allies, after all.”

Harry never pretended to understand the hair ribbons or allies bit, but he understood that she had an understanding and it didn’t hurt to have allies. There had to be another way than ribbons, though.

They rejoined the others and headed out.

Now, being a group made from primarily Gryffindor, they all decided to go one of two ways. One way looped back around toward the familiar part of Hogsmeade, but by a more scenic route that Vince had been down once or twice with exploration intentions that he’d never gotten around to.

Vince and AJ chose that path to travel.

Hogsmeade was full of different paths to explore, but Harry, Hermione and Agent took one that led deeper into the village, further away from Hogwarts.

Harry let Agent off the leash and the friends watched him run about to snap at snowflakes drifting on the breeze.

“The magic bind should start wearing off soon,” she mused, huddling deeper into her coat.

“I’ll be sorry when it does,” Harry admitted. Once the bind wore off on Sirius, Dumbledore would have to send him back out on Order business. He enjoyed this time with his Godfather.

“It’ll be fine, Harry,” she bumped his arm with hers. “Dumbledore would still let you see him. But, you know, Sirius could tell us where he saw Tony. I bet Sirius could also help clear Tony’s name.

“Then we’d have to figure out how to clear Sirius’,” Harry pointed out, “if we get that far. Speaking of Agent,” he frowned. “What’s going to happen to him when we’re in America? I don’t think having a pet will help.”

“That’s why I sent him with AJ,” she smiled, clearly pleased with herself. “The triplets have assured me that they would take very good care of him after AJ goes back to her house. They’ll bring him by the Tower in a few weeks.”

Due to Harry’s life being at risk, again (though this time from Death Eaters – or so the Order claimed), the Trio and Ginny would be coming back by Floo. Thinking about it, Harry felt a stone drop into his stomach.

“What if it’s not the Death Eaters they think is after me?” he voiced. “It could very well be Tony they’re trying to protect us from!”

“The thought’s crossed my mind,” Hermione reluctantly admitted. “It wouldn’t necessarily matter to them, though. That the Killer is going after _former_ students. They’ll still believe that Tony might decide to come after us. Although,” she mused, “it’s an idea to keep the Killer away from us, even though we know it’s not Tony. The real Killer is still out there.”

Harry would’ve argued the point, but he knew that he was a potential target for anyone at this point.

Turning their thoughts away from the future, Harry and Hermione found that there were smaller stores this deep into Hogsmeade. There were antique stores, another Zonko’s and Honeyduke’s, another inn and pub, some clothing boutiques, stationary shops… but they had half the selection that their counter parts did, some Harry hadn’t seen before.

“I _am_ glad they have Sugar Quills out here,” Hermione crunched the tip of hers. “They’re one of my favorites.”

Harry agreed, crunching on his own as he looked around. “We’ll have to bring some for Ron,” he commented. Their now of age friend and second oldest ‘husband’ had asked for some candy for them to bring when they went to the Burrow.

They’d had a lovely little birthday celebration for him on March first and the only thing that could’ve made it better was if Tony had been there. They had a lovely time with Palmer, though, who seemed to have made friends with quite a few Hufflepuffs that were suitably impressed with his knowledge of warmer growing plants after an incident that Neville and Seamus had found themselves in.

They were just passing a window and debating going back to the house for lunch when Harry noticed that it had been quite a while since they last saw Agent.

“Wasn’t he just there?” Hermione pointed to a group of trees off to the left.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Harry hurried over to the spot where they just saw the black dog. “Agent? Here, Agent!”

“Come here, boy,” Hermione added her voice, too.

They spent twenty minutes looking for him, both slowly beginning to panic if it hadn’t been for Hermione suddenly telling him to shush and listen.

He strained his ears and heard what she heard; a voice calling for help.

“Do you think it’s a trap?” Hermione drew her wand as he did, both slowly moving toward the voice that honestly did seem to need help.

“It could be,” he conceded, both moving quickly. Five minutes later, they rounded a copse of trees to find their missing dog staring with adoring blue eyes as he held a stick in his mouth, whining for play from the blond that he’d inadvertently run up a tree.

“Come on, shoo!” the blond flapped a hand at him. “ _Please_ shoo? I don’t much like dogs,” he added, flinching as Agent inched closer. “It’s not your fault, honest. I had a bad experience with a dog at uni and I still haven’t got over it.”

Harry and Hermione just looked at each other. It seemed like what it looked like, but it could still be a trap.

“Is your owner somewhere nearby?” the blond looked desperately around. “I’m sure they must be worried.” Agent wasn’t planning to move anywhere any time soon, tail wagging as he watched his ~~captive~~ potential playmate continue to shoo him away.

Hermione stepped forward. “Here, Agent,” she called firmly. The blond’s head snapped up, revealing sapphire blue eyes. “We’re sorry if he’s been bothering you,” Hermione told him, glancing at Harry to draw him to her.

Agent glanced at them for a second, but foiled the blond’s attempt at escape as he looked back and reached up a paw.

“We are very sorry,” Harry added, keeping his wand visible as he approached to clip the lead on Agent’s collar. “We didn’t think he would wander off. He’s usually more well-behaved than this.”

“Yeah,” the blond let out a self-deprecating laugh. “I knew I’d find myself in another tree.” Once Harry had managed to pull Agent back a few paces, the blond warily dropped to the ground. “I know that not all dogs are scary, but… uni happened and… well…"

“We understand,” Hermione assured. “But why didn’t you apparate? You could have.”

“Yeah, if I had magic,” he shrugged. “I’m a Squib. No magic here.”

“A Squib? Here?” she blinked.

“Well,” he sheepishly glanced away. “My older brother and my boyfriend both kept telling me to take a vacation. Luckily, my half-brother has a place here that he let me watch while he’s off doing… You know, now that I think of it, I don’t think I ever asked about what he did.” He sighed, “I keep meaning to ask, but I get distracted and –” He suddenly groaned. “Here I am, nattering on about my life and to two strangers, no less! Both my brothers would hit me upside the head for sure. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is a sweet, sweet man who has long been used to my ways and –” he hung his head with a sigh. Picking it back up, he smiled brightly, held out his hand and said, as if by recitation, “Good afternoon, my name is Phil. Who am I speaking with?”

“Hermione,” she smiled slightly as they shook hands. “This is Harry and Agent.”

“Hello,” Harry shook his hand next, almost laughing as Phil almost leaped back into Hermione’s arms when he found Agent uncomfortably close.

Harry honestly didn’t see Phil as much of a threat, but that didn’t quite mean much, did it? Glancing around, he spied a green bag still in the tree and pointed it out.

“Oh, yes,” Phil nodded. “That’s mine. I was just on my way to the stationary place when I met your, um, very lovely friend,” he smiled nervously as Agent inched closer, still with the branch in his mouth.

“We should be getting back to our friend’s house,” Hermione suggested. “We’re really sorry about Agent.”

“Me and dogs,” he shrugged. “It’s been nice meeting you,” he added, walking back to the tree. “See you around.”

They said their good-byes, collected the disappointed Agent, then went on their way.

“He was actually very nice,” Hermione took hold of Agent’s branch and threw it for him. Agent just sulked next to Harry and paid her no mind.

“We could very well see him again,” Harry pointed out.

“Yes, but we might be a bit safer if there were others closer to us,” she agreed, still not totally convinced that he was harmless.

“Agent seems to be taken with him, though,” Harry glanced at his Godfather. “Do you know him, by any chance?”

Agent paused to tap a horizontal stick.

“That’s a negative, then,” Hermione mused. “Were you pestering that poor man because he’s scared of dogs?”

The sparkle in his eyes made them both laugh.

“Agent, you’re horrible,” she giggled.

“What would you expect from a Marauder?” Harry pointed out.

They missed the startled expression that crossed his face, waving when they saw Vince and AJ coming toward them.

“Ready for lunch?” Vince asked.

Harry nodded. “Definitely.”

** *

They went back to the house and had lunch. They then explored the inside of the house and that exploration kept them busy until long after the sun had set.

“Your house is big, Vince,” AJ told him at dinner.

“But it’s fun going exploring, right?” he smiled widely at her.

“Have you lived here your whole life?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Not really, though it does feel like it. The house was built almost eighty years ago and has had a number of owners until we got it when I started school.”

“That’s a long time to be standing,” Harry bit into his ham. “But the school is older than eighty years.”

“The house might be old,” Mrs. Muldoon put in, “but it’s nowhere near as old as others in the village. None are anywhere near as old as Hogwarts, though.”

When Harry turned in later that night, it was an odd feeling as he sank into his familiar bed in new surroundings. Agent and his pillow sat right next to the dresser waiting for him.

“Maybe we’ll manage to sleep without that energy drain,” Harry commented, turning on his side and sinking into sleep.

** *


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, guys and girls. Twenty chapters left. *Twenty*.
> 
> It is literally over 600 pages and the longest thing I've ever written. 
> 
> In Other News: Greetings from Michigan!

Harry fought off the last vestiges of an already forgotten dream when the door creaked open to let AJ poke her head in.

“Good morning,” she studied him. “Everyone’s downstairs already.”

“’Kay,” he pressed his hands to his eyes. “Be there in a minute.” It took almost twice that for him to realize that she was still there. “Alright, AJ?”

“I read the article,” she blurted. “From the Quibbler.”

“Oh,” he struggled to sit up. “What did you think?”

“It was very brave of you,” she told him. “To put yourself out there like that must have been scary.”

“Do you believe me?” he studied her blob of a figure solemnly.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Yes, I do,” she sighed. “It’s scary, though.”

AJ had no idea.

She left to join the others and Harry fell back into his pillows, closing his eyes. If the energy drain had been good for anything, he reflected, it was that he was too exhausted to be dealing with nightmares – especially those dealing with the Third Task.

And speaking of the Third Task, he turned over, looking to ask Agent when he had come to the school – the question having been on his mind for some time – only to jolt back in surprise as he found AJ standing next to wardrobe.

“Bloody hell,” he gasped, not expecting her to still be there. “AJ, Ron’s right when he said that you need to stop skulking in the shadows. Likely to give someone a heart attack. Hey,” he blinked. “Weren’t you just wearing blue a moment ago? Why did you change clothes?”

The brunette simply watched him, not saying a word.

Slightly unnerved, he glanced around before smiling slightly. “I’ve never experienced you – or anyone else, for that matter – sleepwalking, so I don’t suppose you’re doing that now?”

Still no answer.

Before he could say anything else, the radio squawked and he dove for it, forgetting all about AJ in favor of sliding his glasses on and fumbling with the radio on the side table.

“I’m here,” he spoke into it. Static came from it and Harry frowned, noticing that the dial had been turned to the all-inclusive channel. “Hermione?” he tried, because she was the closest point to him right now. “Ron?” It was entirely possible that there was some sort of magical interference from his end, even though the radios only worked fifty miles apart. Then, hopefully, he tried, “Tony?”

Another minute and the static suddenly cleared, allowing him to catch the last few words of Hermione’s panicking.

_“-arry? Harry, can you hear me?”_

“Yes, yes, I’m fine,” he assured.

 _“What was that?”_ she was clearly shaken.

“I don’t know. Did Tony say anything about this happening?”

_“I don’t know! I never thought to ask. Do you think it was Tony trying to contact us?”_

“Do you think Ron’s okay?” Harry added. Both were completely possible. “Think Tony even _has_ his radio?”

 _“We’ll need to look for that, too,”_ she sighed. _“You have a point about Ron, though. We need to send him a message or something.”_

“I’m coming down,” he decided. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

_“Alright. See you then.”_

Harry signed off and scrambled off the bed. “Oh, AJ,” he suddenly remembered the First Year. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to… AJ?” he blinked, finding her gone and him alone. Shaking his head at her antics – and trying to shake off an odd, uneasy feeling – he hurried to dress and stuffed knife, wand and radio into his pockets before darting out of the room. Before he cleared the door, though, he thought he felt someone behind him and turned, thinking AJ had finally come out of hiding – only to find no one there.

“AJ?” he frowned. “Did you manage to find my Invisibility Cloak or something?” It was possible that she’d snuck in last night while he was with Vince and snooped through his room, seeing the Cloak hanging on the chair by the wardrobe where he’d put it. “I didn’t think you were Marauder material,” he smiled slightly, “but, then, Lupin doesn’t look like Marauder material, either.”

“Who are you talking to? And what’s a Marauder?”

Harry almost literally felt his heart jump to his throat as he jumped halfway to the ceiling. “AJ,” he gasped, leaning against the wall for support as he turned to her, hand over his heart. “Make some kind of noise, please.”

“Alright,” she lifted a shoulder. “Ready to eat?”

Harry closed his eyes, just to breathe for a moment, before reopening them with a nod. “You changed your clothes?”

She looked down at her green outfit and shrugged. “I don’t think it was the right day for it, so I changed.”

“Oh,” he breathed deeply. “For what it’s worth, I though you looked good in white. Just… don’t stare at people like you did me, okay? It’s unsettling,” he smiled before taking off for the stairs, leaving her to stare after him with a puzzled frown.

* *

Once they finished a late breakfast, Harry and Hermione headed out for the Post station, the same on they used to try to get in contact with Tony. Hermione wrote the small letter and they split the payment for the fast response and were on their way out when a tall stack of packages collided with Harry.

“Bloody hell,” he groaned, blinking at the sky.

“Are you alright, Harry?” Hermione knelt beside him.

“Yeah, fine,” he assured, letting her sit him up where he caught sight of a familiar blond struggling to untangle himself from his robes. “Phil?” he struggle up and they both helped the Squib get himself put to rights.

“I’m so sorry, you two,” he apologized, straightening his ponytail. “I just really needed to send these off in a hurry and didn’t see either one of you.”

“No, it’s alright,” she assured, the three quickly gathering the spilled pile. “Here, let us help you, Phil.”

“Oh, would you?” he smiled brilliantly. “Wow! Who knew being chased up trees would get me such good – uh, your friend’s not with you, right?” Phil looked around nervously.

“No,” Hermione smiled reassuringly. “He’s elsewhere for today. We were just sending a message to one of our best friends who couldn’t be here because of family obligations.”

“Don’t you have an owl of your own?” Phil wanted to know. “I heard all, well, a majority have owls to carry messages around.”

Harry looked at Hermione, who had borrowed Hedwig.

“She’s on her way to America,” she explained. “Our accommodations for next week are being dealt with, only the person we’re to be staying with doesn’t have an owl.” That didn’t really explain much of anything – even to Harry -, but Phil nodded thoughtfully.

“Where in America?” he wanted to know.

“The East Coast.”

“Really? I’m from the Pacific Northwest!” Phil proudly revealed. “Well, I mostly grew up there. I spent a lot of time in the UK, too.”

That explained the light English accent, with something else added in.

Once they got the parcels off to respective countries (“Friends and relatives and other workaholic acquaintances.”), they made a stop at the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer.

“I honestly can’t thank you both enough,” Phil enthused, gesturing with his mug. “I get a tad flustered sometimes.”

“We don’t know many Squibs,” Hermione daintily sipped hers.

“Another to add to your collection, eh? I can see that.”

“So the rest of your family is magic?” Harry asked.

“My brother is and some of my closer relatives are. And of course my half-brother. It’s not all bad. My boyfriend’s cousin is a Squib, too. I’m just glad I have a bit of support, you know? Being a Squib isn’t easy.”

“I’m Muggleborn,” Hermione told him.

“So you can relate,” he smiled at her. “But the Muggleborns need to be careful, don’t you? Especially nowadays.”

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled. “But thank you for your concern.” She and Harry exchanged looks. They couldn’t exactly tell just anyone that Hermione was probably one of a minority of Muggleborns who were well-protected, whether they wanted it or not.

“If you’re sure,” Phil studied them before yawning. “Excuse me,” he glanced at his watch. “I was up all night doing some last minute things. Time for me to check out for the night.”

“We should go, too,” she announced. “Last minute homework things.”

“I wish I was as driven as you when I was in school,” he admired.

“Maybe you just have to find a motivation,” Harry suggested.

Phil hummed and insisted on walking them back to the Muldoon house. “It’s not out of me way,” he reassured, tucking Hermione’s arm into his almost absently. “My brother’s house isn’t all that far from you.”

After another encounter with Agent – who seemed oddly determined to play with the blond Squib -, they invited Phil to come by for lunch tomorrow in an attempt to acclimatize him to Agent.

“Maybe he’ll stop chasing you up trees,” Harry watched the blond hop lightly down from one.

“It’s a hope,” Phil sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s a knee-jerk reaction every time I see a dog. I’ve just managed to keep from reacting too strongly – mostly – until now.”

They waved him off on his way and tried comforting the morose Marauder before Harry went with Vince to do some flying and Hermione took Agent to join AJ and Mrs. Muldoon in the kitchen.

The two boys headed for the clearing just a few meters from inside the tree line.

“There’s also a path you can take around,” Vince told him, the pair kicking off. “It’s about two hours on a one-way trip.”

“Maybe we’ll take a walk there while we’re here,” Harry wondered if Hermione would be up for it. Agent would.

** 

It was almost dark when the small group set out for a walk in the woods.

“Stick to the path,” Mrs. Muldoon called after them. “I’ll be here with snacks!”

“Okay, Mum,” Vince waved. He led them into the trees. “Don’t lose track of each other,” he turned to the others. “It’s different at night.”

They all had small lanterns and Agent had a collar upgrade, one of them being a tracking spell and dim lights around the outside of the collar. They decided it was a bit scarier when doing it the Muggle way.

“Are we going all around?” Hermione asked the others. “Or going back partway?”

“We can cut back and head home through the clearing.”

It was a quiet night.

Harry tipped his head back and peered at what sky could be seen. Both just budding branches and those that hadn’t yet felled their leaves blocked the sky, the trees growing close together bringing back memories of their First Year.

He glanced at Hermione, who sent a look telling him that he wasn’t the only one remembering.

The small group walked in silence for a while, Agent snuffling at whatever interested him.

They made it until an hour into the journey.

“I think I’m ready for your Mum’s cocoa,” Hermione commented as the clock struck on the hour.

“I think I’m ready, too,” Vince agreed. “AJ, Harry? Ready?”

Harry shrugged. “I can keep going."

Agent came to stand with him and AJ didn’t answer, pressing into him as she looked around.

“That’s three,” he grinned.

“Majority rules,” Vince announced good-naturedly. “Looks like we’re staying,” he told Hermione.

“That’s what I was expecting,” the brunette rolled her brown eyes as they all continued on. She moved to the side of Harry that AJ wasn’t on and let Vince and Agent lead them. “Although, it _is_ rather eerie,” she commented.

Harry nodded, glancing at the darkness behind them.

It was cold, dark, clouds appeared to be rolling in to block what little light was coming down and there was some kind of eerie silence that fell over them the further they went.

AJ squeezed his hand and shivered. “Another hour,” she muttered, trudging along.

“You don’t have to keep going just because we’re allies,” Harry told her, guilt washing over him as he realized that she could very well be doing this to keep him happy.

“’m not,” she rubbed her eyes under her glasses with a gloved hand. She blinked up at him. “We came this far, didn’t we? We need to see this through.”

“But… I’m not forcing you?”

“No, you’re not.”

He wasn’t sure if she was lying to him or not. She didn’t seem to be, but her desire to keep going was something that Harry had experienced as a Gryffindor and had rarely seen in young Hufflepuffs like AJ. If _he_ was an eleven year old Hufflepuff, he’d probably demand to go back at this point.

Vince glanced back at them. “Well, since we’re this far, anyway, we can swing by the Crescent.”

“Like in the moon phase?” Hermione asked with interest.

“Yeah. We explored this path when we first moved in. There’s a rock that looks like a crescent moon and it’s not too far from here.”

“Doesn’t that sound interesting, AJ?” Harry squeezed her hand.

“Is she out here because of the ribbons?” Hermione quietly asked him.

“She said no,” he shrugged.

Twenty minutes later, Vince stepped off the path and went a little bit further from the clearing that Harry could see on their right.

“Here it is,” Vince called.

Hermione left her lantern in the middle of the path as she went that way so they could find the path again.

“Look, Hermione,” Harry smiled slightly. “It _does_ look like a crescent.”

Even without Hermione’s lantern, the others still had enough light to illuminate the area.

The rock came to Harry’s knees and had a roughly flat surface with moss growing in spots. If Tony had laid on top of it with his head at the very top and spread his limbs out, his fingertips would have room to spare. His legs would hang off a few inches below his knees and it was wide enough, even at the narrowest part, that AJ could lay comfortably across the Italian even if she grew another foot and a half.

“It’s huge,” AJ noted as Vince and Hermione moved to explore it from different places.

“Yup.”

“This is a nice picnic place,” Vince grinned as Agent climbed up on it to sniff around.

“We should have lunch here tomorrow,” Hermione grinned. “We could bring Phil.”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry nodded. “We’ll have to ask him, though.”

“I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem,” Vince shrugged. “There’s certainly enough trees for him to climb.”

“Agent’s going to try to behave, aren’t you?” Harry hid a grin at the stern look Hermione gave the dog. Agent barked in reluctant agreement.

“It looks a lot more interesting during the day,” Vince didn’t bother hiding a laugh.

Letting AJ go, Harry ran a hand over the gritty surface of the rock and jolted violently as the lights suddenly went out.

“Bloody hell,” Vince swore, off to Harry’s right. He tried to see him, but it was too dark.

“We should probably head back now,” Hermione said, off to Harry’s left. “Can anyone see the light I left?”

“No,” Harry strained to see in the direction they came from. “Looks like that’s out, too. And Agent’s collar is out.”

The dog slinked off the rock next Harry and whined.

“It’s alright,” he reached down to ruffle his Godfather’s ears. “Vince, can we make it through the clearing?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that, too.”

Agent’s paw swiped at his hand and whined again.

“What? What is it?” Harry frowned at where he thought Sirius was. “Did you hurt yourself?” The dog just pawed harder. Thinking that there was something wrong with it, he turned his hand over to hold it and blinked as a thought occurred. “AJ? Hey, where’s AJ?”

“I thought she was with you,” Hermione sounded a little nervous.

“No, she was closer to me,” Vince called. “But that was before the lights went out. It’s odd, though. Mum’s spells don’t just wonk out like this.”

“AJ?” Hermione called. “Are you here?”

“That’s what you were trying to say, wasn’t it?” Harry crouched down to hug Agent’s neck. “Thanks for thinking of her, Sirius,” he quietly said into an ear.

Agent whined as he nosed the younger male.

Harry stayed crouched down as he surveyed the darkness in front of him, straining his ears to listen for AJ, who he swore was just arm’s length from him a few minutes ago. The other two were moving slightly as they looked around, too.

_“Harry.”_

He just about slammed his head into the crescent shaped rock as he whipped around. “AJ?” he stood, eyes struggling as he tried to see in the darkness.

“AJ?” he heard Hermione echo. “I thought I heard her behind me.”

“I didn’t,” Vince sounded a little closer to him and Agent. “AJ?”

Harry didn’t want to start panicking, but that’s what he started to do. As… interesting as AJ was – second only to Luna Lovegood -, she was still one of his friends and he would regret it for the rest of his life if something happened to her and he wasn’t able to do anything to help.

“We need to get back to the house,” Vince sounded like he was attempting to get his head on straight, but was failing miserably. “Mum’ll help look for AJ.”

“Maybe we should let Agent find her,” Harry reached down to pat him.

_“Harry.”_

He started slightly as it sounded like the voice was right next to him. “Alright, AJ,” he spoke up, unable to keep his heart from racing or shivers from wracking his body as it seemed almost colder than it was a moment ago.

Hermione managed to make it over to his side and she huddled against him. “Does it fe-feel a bit colder to you?”

“I thought it – it was just me,” he responded as Vince came to his other side, Agent whining and huddling against their legs.

“Alright, I think the night’s gotten to me,” Vince huffed a weak laugh. “I’d like to get back as fast as possible.”

“The night’s done for me,” Harry agreed.

“I just don’t feel comfortable with leaving AJ alone by herself out here,” Hermione voiced. Harry agreed and felt Hermione turn away from him to glance around again – right before she screamed and slammed back into him, causing him to fall into Vince, the three tumbling to the cold, hard ground.

“Can we go now?”

Harry straightened his glasses as a soft light spilled over the group. Agent barked joyfully as Harry looked up to see AJ sleepily looking down at them.

“Bloody hell,” Vince gasped from behind him, hanging his head.

Harry silently agreed and felt Hermione bury her head in his shoulder. “Alright?” he asked her.

“I didn’t see her there,” she hugged him tightly. “I didn’t – I _swear_ I didn’t expect her to be standing there. I thought she was in front of us.”

“I didn’t feel anyone in front of us,” Vince commented, struggling to stand.

“I did,” she slowly stood, Harry behind her as AJ yawned.

“Where did you go?” Vince looked at the Hufflepuff. “We called and you didn’t answer.”

“I was right here,” she lifted a shoulder. “I didn’t hear you. And what happened to your lights?”

The older three exchanged disbelieving looks.

Harry didn’t think AJ had been in that spot and he knew for _certain_ that her light had been off, too. Why would she lie about being in one spot when he and Hermione swore that they heard AJ moving around them?

“I think we should go now,” Vince breathed. “Before something else happens.”

They gathered the non-functioning lights and took off for the clearing, even remembering to grab Hermione’s from the path.

Harry wrapped a hand firmly around AJ’s. “Don’t let go,” he told her, Hermione taking his other hand.

“Alright,” she nodded before looking back at the Crescent.

“Come on,” Vince called from where he and Agent were ahead, already at the edge of the clearing.

“Coming,” Hermione called back. “Wait for us,” she tugged on Harry’s hand and he pulled AJ away from the rock.

All five of them made it back to the house where Vince’s mum puzzled over the lanterns and collar and the group huddled in front of the fire with cocoa and snacks, content to stay there until bedtime.

** **

 


	36. Chapter 36

“That’s crazy,” Phil shook his head. “And you still don’t know what happened?”

“No, we don’t,” Hermione shrugged.

Now that they were there in the daylight, it didn’t seem so bad.

Harry absently stuffed the rest of his sandwich into his mouth as he looked around.

The sun shone gaily through the branches and lit the area carpeted in growing green. Harry, Hermione and Phil sat on and against the Crescent, enjoying the Wednesday afternoon.

“Are you two and your friend alright, though?” Phil glanced down at Harry and over at Hermione, both of whom exchanged a look.

The planned outing on Tuesday didn’t happen due to AJ having come down with a cold and Harry and Hermione had felt _such_ a power drain that they’d been unable to move until well past three in the afternoon.

Vince and his mum were on the verge of getting the Headmaster or hauling the both of them back to the school, but both AJ and Agent managed to stay their hands – mostly by climbing on top of the unconscious pair and refusing to leave.

When they woke up, they wondered what set the drain off _this_ time and Hermione couldn’t help fretting over the fact that maybe Tony was in trouble and was trying to reach out to them. Harry pointed out that this was the first time that one of their number ( i.e. Ron ) wasn’t present.

‘It could also be the events at the Crescent,’ she had posited. ‘Since we’ve been thinking so much about Tony, I can only wonder if our stress hasn’t affected our magic, somehow. Palmer did say, after all, that worrying about Tony isn’t helping.’ And Merlin only knew what the marriage bond was doing with all the excitement.

In any case, Harry and Hermione were feeling back to normal and Phil made it even easier when he rushed over, thinking it was Tuesday.

“We’re fine,” Hermione said now. “It’s a small thing that we’ve been dealing with since school more or less started, but I think that was the worst of it. We’ll start feeling less tired now that this illness is running its course.”

They hoped.

Once they found Tony.

“I’m not sure if I should feel jealous or relieved that I don’t have magic,” blue eyes darted between them dubiously.

“Being jealous is never something good,” Harry told him, knowing well that his Aunt had been jealous or envious of his mother.

Look how that turned out.

The three spent another hour there, Phil gathering confidence as he asked questions about having magic that he couldn’t ask anyone else. Harry reckoned that talking to students felt more comfortable than it was talking to adults.

Vince, AJ and Agent came to join them, having come from the other end of the path to make the trip easier.

“How are you feeling, AJ?” Hermione reached out to pat her arm as the younger girl sniffled slightly.

“I’ve been better,” she sighed.

Agent took the opportunity to find a stick and sat in front of Phil, who didn’t notice him until he turned to get down.

The blond yelped and almost tumbled off the rock in his haste to get away.

“Now’s your chance,” Vince told him, having been read in on the ‘real’ reason for Phil being there. “Don’t run away.”

“Agent won’t hurt you,” AJ spoke with clarity. “You can pet him if you like, to say hello.”

“Let him sniff you, first,” Harry advised.

Phil slowly gathered his courage and took their advice as he gathered himself up and crept closer.

Soon enough, the blond was sending victorious grins at the kids as he sunk his fingers into soft black fur.

“See?” Hermione beamed. “Agent wouldn’t hurt a soul.”

“Not unless it was trying to hurt us,” Harry pointed out.

“Like Mrs. Norris?” AJ tilted her head.

“Yeah, I heard about what happened to Norris,” Vince nodded thoughtfully. “Reckon the teachers figured it out yet?”

“It couldn’t have been a student,” Hermione reiterated. “A student wouldn’t have that kind of knowledge.”

Ever since that incident, the students of Hogwarts had kept extra close eye on their pets to watch them for unusual behavior. Flitwick had been going off book in his lessons and was teaching the Sixth and Seventh Years spells to help keep their pets from being bewitched.

Harry had to commend him, but as Ron had said, ‘Shouldn’t those spells have already been on Norris to begin with?’ That was why an adult had to have spelled the feline to spy on the Trio.

“Agent’s one of the ones who cornered the nosy cat,” AJ told Phil, who was trying to follow the conversation.

“The teachers have been keeping a close eye on her,” Vince went on, “just in case someone wanted to try again.”

Which hadn’t sat well with Filch or Norris. He was now pretty much on his own in the halls, while she chafed at having a shorter leash than she used to.

Of course, teachers and Prefects were still on patrol, but students were still delighted to have Norris restricted until the teachers found out what had happened to Norris and who was responsible.

Phil watched them, absently twirling the stick in his hand and using the other to scratch Agent behind the ears. “I’m still not sure I’m following.”

They told him the basics before Agent started whining, startling Phil into a flinch and reminding the others that they were helping Phil deal with his fear of Agent – if not dogs in general – and not complaining to the man about their problems.

AJ gladly led the group away from their picnic spot, oddly skittish, to the clearing they went through the other night. There, they let Phil throw Agent’s decided toy.

Well, attempted to throw.

“You suck, mate,” Vince told the American.

“I never claimed to be a stick throwing champion,” he muttered, glaring darkly at the stick that Agent returned with something that looked like amused pity.

“You’re letting it go too late,” Hermione told him. She tossed the stick and Phil clapped as it landed further than his ever managed to. Agent raced after it and everyone took turns throwing.

“Wow, AJ,” Phil blinked as the youngest threw it a bit further than the others. “You have a good arm. Have you ever considered Archery?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’ve seen it though.”

Phil was a little less likely to run up a tree near Agent by the time he left some time later.

“He’s a nice young man,” Vince’s mum commented as she distributed hot chocolate when it started to snow.

“Agent’s a good judge of character, isn’t he?” Vince glanced over that the dog on his pillow, staring into the fire.

“Of course,” AJ drowsed against Harry’s shoulder as she let the warm, dark and quiet environment take her. “He really is. It’s just that… some people… need to learn…,” she yawned, “that trust goes both ways.”

“Did you say something, AJ?” Harry broke out of his thoughts of Tony and where he was right now to look down at the mumbling, only to see her half asleep. “Yeah. I think that’s where I’ll go, too.”

** **


	37. Chapter 37

 

When Harry came down the next morning, there were a great number of plants, bulbs and seeds in the kitchen where the patio opened up into the backyard.

“We’ll see if anyone wants to help,” Vince’s mum (“Call me Collie, you lot make me feel old.”) walked in with a smile. “You don’t have to do much, just help dig a little and place them. Oh, and we’ll need Agent’s no doubt top digging skills for the area I have in mind.”

“Okay,” Harry nodded.

After breakfast, Vince was sent out for errands his mum gave him, while Harry, Agent and the girls headed for the backyard.

“Alright,” Collie clapped her hands. “AJ, being a Hufflepuff, this should be a snap for you. I’d like to go over future locations with you, if that’s alright. Hermione and our young gentlemen will be doing the dirty work. I’ll give you some special tools that will make it easier. Oh, and Agent? Before I have you dig up that troublesome patch, could you be a dear and help churn up for the other plants?”

Colleen and AJ put their heads together over the list of available plants as the others began digging in the indicated areas.

Agent went mental with the job, dirt flying everywhere.

“Why are _we_ doing this?” Hermione laughed as another clump of dirt flew past. “Agent’s got it covered!”

He barked in joyful agreement.

“Dogs do this kind of thing, right?” Harry grinned.

It wasn’t like Agent hadn’t had the opportunity to dig holes in the ground.

Hagrid and Sprout had seen the Animagi’s desire after they caught him staring mournfully at the greenhouses and Hagrid’s garden, respectively. Wanting to make him feel welcome – or so the story went, because both were Order members and knew better -, they came up with the idea of having Agent dig up any dirt they needed. While this had been well-received, there still wasn’t anything quite like digging in a garden.

Sometime later, AJ joined them and directed Agent to the corner of the house that had just refused to be dug up.

“Well?” Hermione smiled slightly as AJ and Harry held Agent back. “Are you up for the challenge? Yes? Have at it, then!”

The dog was released and he immediately started digging.

“AJ,” Harry frowned as he watched. “How were they having trouble digging that corner up? Agent seems to be having the time of his life.”

“Well,” she scrunched her nose. “Vince was telling me yesterday that they had never been able to plant anything over here. He said that they tried both Muggle and magical means, but nothing took. There had to be some kind of enchantment on it, but Collie couldn’t lift it. It wasn’t until Vince wrote her when Agent first showed up that she started thinking to borrow Agent. He was the only thing she hadn’t tried yet.”

Hermione leaned in to add, “The dirt wouldn’t be loose enough to get even a magical shovel in. I’ve read about this kind of enchantment. It’s something that dog lovers liked to do. They spell a patch of dirt slowly for their dog to use and dig to their hearts’ content. The previous owners must have loved dogs, though I have to wonder why they didn’t lift it when they left.”

“Maybe they forgot,” AJ pointed out.

“Or maybe a pet’s buried there and they didn’t want anyone to disturb them,” Harry voiced. “If anything happened to Crookshanks or Hedwig, I don’t think I’d be happy if someone dug them up, either.”

They heard a bark and looked over to see the dog pawing at something in the hole he dug.

“We’ll find out soon enough, I expect,” Hermione glanced at him as they went over to see what Agent dug up. The kids knelt over the hole to see the corner of a container sticking out of the dirt around it.

“Let’s see what it is,” Harry looked AJ, Agent and Hermione in the eyes before bending over to brush the dirt away. The girls joined him after a few minutes and they soon uncovered a wooden box 14 cm long by 22 wide. He carefully lifted it and paused at the weight of it. “Doesn’t seem like there’s anything inside.”

“Maybe there _is_ a pet,” AJ didn’t look like she wanted to open it anymore.

“Agent?” Hermione glanced over at him. The dog nosed the side of it and pawed at it. “I don’t think we need to worry about that,” she relaxed, patting AJ on the arm.

Harry looked down at the lid and saw that you had to grasp both ends of the lid to slide it open, the line in the middle and the cleverly designed end handles – making it appear to be a lid with no way to open – attesting to that.

Carefully cradling the light wooden box with one hand, he used the other to slowly tug at one handle.

“Oh, here, before you drop it,” Hermione put one of her hands under the box to help hold it as her other one grasped the other end. They worked the lid open and Agent pushed his nose in, AJ pulling him off before he sneezed.

Harry and Hermione leant over it until their heads touched.

“It’s a piece of cloth,” she frowned, glancing at Harry.

He nodded thoughtfully, both drawing away to let the weak sunlight shine into it.

14 cm by 22 and 12 cm high, and all that was in the box was a scrap of cloth.

“Almost anti-climactic, that,” he huffed. He lifted the box into his lap and reached in to pull the cloth out, only to blink as his hand encountered something that the cloth was wrapped around. “Hold on, there’s something else,” he pulled both cloth and object out of the box and carefully balanced the box as he unrolled the mysterious object.

“Oh,” AJ blinked as the object fell into Harry’s palm. “It’s a pendant.”

It was a palm-sized pendant, a simple but elegant one. It looked like jade, carved into a figure eight.

“Looks like something a man would wear, isn’t it?” Hermione mused.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “But why use a big box for a little thing like this?”

Agent sniffed at it before placing a paw on it as it lay in Harry’s hand.

“Maybe Agent should keep it,” AJ – silent up to this point – suggested. “He found it, after all.”

It was an idea. Harry turned it around in his hand and shrugged. Maybe when Sirius changed back, he could give it to him.

“Here,” he offered it to AJ. “Did you want to see it?” Hermione reached a hand out when AJ shook her head.

“That’s alright,” she shrugged. She watched them study the box and pendant before adding quietly, “It’s not mine to hold.”

Eventually, they put the pendant back in the box and Hermione took it to her room before they returned to their digging.

* **

Collie was amazed that the troublesome patch of ground had finally given up.

“Maybe it really _was_ a dog spell,” she mused once they’d all washed up. “Thank you, Agent,” she ruffled his ears. “You’ve done me a great favor and I don’t know how I’ll repay you.”

“Is Vince still out?” Hermione looked around, but couldn’t see him.

“Yes. I’m afraid that Hogsmeade ran out of what I needed, so he had to run to Diagon Alley. I’m expecting him back soon, but he and some others in his study group were going to go over some questions from the homework.”

Harry nodded as he remembered the other Sixth Year saying something about a study group meeting. He had turned down the offer of joining him because the Order was no doubt lurking there and neither he nor Hermione had any intention of jeopardizing their American trip. Even if they wouldn’t be at the Burrow, Harry didn’t want to take chances on the risk of being put somewhere (hopefully not his Aunt’s house) that would be under around the clock surveillance.

“I need to visit the Post office anyway,” Hermione gave him a look. “I think my letter came in.”

“I’ll go, too,” AJ nodded.

“Go on, then,” Collie all but threw them out the front door. “Take your time, stay together and have fun.”

“That was quick,” Harry blinked at the closed door.

“I think she was going to suggest an outing,” Hermione took charge of Agent. “She may not be used to having people staying at her house for a week. She and Vince seemed like it’s been the two of them in there all the time."

“What do you think happened to his father?” AJ slipped her hand into Harry’s. “Did he die or just leave?”

“I’m sort of afraid to ask,” Harry admitted. It was bad enough that he knew AJ was an orphan like him. That did give them a connection, but he would have been just as happy if he didn’t know.

“Why do you think someone buried that pendant?” Hermione changed the subject. “As a reminder of someone?”

“Maybe,” he shrugged. If that was the case, they would probably have to re-bury it or something, but perhaps in a different spot. The dog charm could very well be on the pendant and the newly planted flowers in the box’s previous spot seemed very happy there. It’d be a shame to dig them up after all their hard work.

Hermione went in to get the letter that Ron wrote in response to theirs and they headed for the Three Broomsticks.

Coincidentally, some of AJ’s Housemates – a few visiting the ones who stayed at school – whisked her off for some Hufflepuff time, claiming that she might turn Gryffindor due to her constantly hanging out with the Trio and that it was time for an intervention.

They were all joking, Harry was sure, but that did solve the problem about AJ’s presence. She knew about the radios, of course, but this problem was between the Trio.

Once their drinks had arrived, Harry and Hermione opened the letter and read Ron’s words.

_‘Harry and Hermione,_

_I’m alright here. Nothing going on, even on the radio. I didn’t hear anything. It’s just sitting here in my trunk.’_

He went on to tell them what had occurred when Fleur, Gabby and their parents stayed for a few days and what was going on at present, before telling them that their arrival was highly anticipated at the Burrow and that extra wards were being added.

“You know,” Hermione began thoughtfully. “The Order is very protective of you because of your connection to Tom Riddle, but it seems to me that there’s something… else to it. Haven’t you noticed?”

“Not so much at school,” he shrugged, “but Tony has.”

The Italian had jokingly brought a made up schedule to McGonagall because the twins had complained that the Order was trying to run their lives – or Harry’s in particular – and had dared Tony to argue the fact “being a top-notch investigator like yourself.”

When Tony had come back not too long after he’d left, it was with an odd look on his face. He told the twins that they were right, but said it with a joking tone before coming up with an outrageous topic that made Harry suspicious. Tony had later taken him aside to caution him about making sure an activity was truly voluntary. Harry had tried to get more information, but Tony kept his mouth shut with a thoughtful expression.

Hermione tapped the tabletop. “Maybe Tony figured it out before leaving. Or… you honestly don’t think that it was because he disappeared?”

Harry wasn’t entirely sure what the Order’s problem was – because there was a fine line between protective and controlling, preparedness and paranoia -, but the Order’s issues and Tony’s disappearance had no connection. “Call it a gut feeling, but I don’t think so.”

There was still the possibility, however.

“I can’t believe that only _our_ radios were affected,” Harry put them on another topic.

“It _is_ strange,” Hermione shook her head. “I wonder if Tony’s radio was affected, as well.” Though neither voiced it, they knew that the other wondered if Tony had been trying to talk to them. There was also the possibility that something had happened to the radios themselves. They would know more when they went to Tony’s flat – apartment – and see if they could find that radio, too.

There was nothing coming from that line of thought, so they found other things to talk about. Harry couldn’t help thinking that it seemed like a date, though he honestly felt more comfortable with her than Cho Chang and he didn’t quite feel like that for Hermione.

After a while, Harry and Hermione took Agent outside for a walk.

“AJ’s going to meet us at Honeyduke’s in this part of the village,” the brunette told him as they headed past the Shrieking Shack.

“Alright,” Harry nodded. Agent seemed content to wander next to them on his leash and didn’t pull.

They eventually ran into Vince on their way to Honeyduke’s and found AJ tugging Phil up to the sweet shop.

“Hey, mate,” Vince waved.

“Looks like we meet again, huh?” the blond smiled sheepishly. “I’m not a stalker, honest.”

“It’s a very small world,” AJ pulled on him. “Now, come on!”

“How’d this come about, then?” Harry had to ask.

Phil sighed, not having much trouble in preventing himself from being dragged any further by the unusually outgoing Hufflepuff. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I was doing some people watching when your friend told me that we were going to get candy. I didn’t even see her.”

Harry and Hermione exchanged wry looks in agreement.

“She seemed determined,” Phil shrugged. “I know determination when I see it.”

Once AJ saw that she was being obeyed, she released Phil and happily skipped ahead, Vince going with her.

Agent wandered closer to Phil and nosed him before sneezing.

“Ah, I thought I was forgetting something,” he gingerly patted his head. “You know, I’ve never really stayed for anything other than the sugar mice.”

“You haven’t tried the chocolate?” Harry blinked. “Why not?”

He shrugged. “Never thought about it, really.”

They left Agent tethered outside as the group perused the candy on offer.

“Oh, you have to try this,” Vince dumped some chocolate into AJ’s arms. “Best you’ll ever have.”

“That’s true,” Hermione grabbed some for herself, then more for Phil as an afterthought.

“You don’t have to go to all that trouble,” Phil told her, arms already full of Ice Mice. “I’ll be good with these. And no, on second thought, I’ll try one of those blood lollipops.”

“I don’t think you’ll like it,” Harry remembered having tried one that Neville had bought by mistake once.

“Yeah, AJ,” Vince pulled on her braid as the girl looked at the Lollies thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t.”

“You wouldn’t?” Phil echoed. “Why not? Is that a challenge?”

“I’m getting one!” AJ immediately volunteered.

“Well, I guess the Hufflepuff has a gutsy Gryffindor inside,” he grinned.

“Just don’t rile her,” Hermione told him.

Harry had to smile. While his friend didn’t warm up to AJ very quickly, she was certainly more fond of the First Year now. Maybe it was due to the room sharing.

He was listening to Phil and Hermione talk as he looked over an odd section set a bit further from everything else called ‘ _For Delicate Palates’_ , when Phil suddenly dropped his boxes of mice and rushed out.

“Hey! Get away from him!”

Harry and the others glanced out the windows before _they_ dropped their things and raced after him, Harry practically feeling his heart jump into his throat. They reached Phil, who had his hands gripped around Agent’s collar as the dog growled deeply at two _very_ familiar men.

“Professor Carlin!” Vince smiled widely. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Ah, Muldoon,” he smiled uneasily, eying the dog warily. “Good afternoon. How are you enjoying your break so far?”

Harry had his complete attention focused on Carlin’s cousin, who was staring at Agent with an alarmingly disturbing look on his face. “Good afternoon,” Harry said evenly, moving in front of Agent to block him from Michel. He fought against the urge to take Agent and run.

Hermione gathered Agent’s leash and wrapped it tightly around her fist. “Hello, Professor,” she smiled thinly.

“Ms. Granger. We do apologize for startling your pet,” he anxiously pulled on his cousin’s arm. “If you will all please excuse us, we were on our way to do very important business. Have a good rest of the holiday and I will see you when you return for class.”

Harry’s stomach didn’t settle down, even when the men were swallowed by a crowd of visitors from Russia. Michel hadn’t taken his eyes off Agent – even with Harry in the way – and the most clearest emotion in the man’s eyes was _recognition_.

“What in Merlin’s name was that?” Vince frowned, looking between the others.

Phil glanced down at the still bristled canine and sighed. “I’m just glad he didn’t attack.”

AJ shivered. “I’m going back to get the sweets.”

She, Phil and Vince went to collect the forgotten candy, but Harry and Hermione stayed with Agent.

“Harry, you saw that, didn’t you?” she whispered. “The look on his face?”

He finally turned away from where Carlin and Michel had gone to meet her eyes. “Michel knows.”

“Do you think that’s who he’s been looking for?”

Harry hadn’t only seen recognition. He was reminded of his cousin Dudley when he found the kind of sweets he’d been looking for. That was the look Michel had when he looked at Agent. “Yes. I do.”

“So, if he recognized Agent, that means he was _there_.”

“Michel was involved with whatever Tony was doing, then,” Harry scrubbed a hand through his hair. If Michel had been present when Tony had done what he thought was best for Sirius, then Michel had to have done something with Tony. Tony must have given Sirius the mobile for safe keeping, only Michel must have thought that Sirius had seen something that he wasn’t supposed to and had been looking for him to tie up that loose end.

But, then, where was Tony?

Did Michel and/or Carlin have something to do with Tony’s absence? Hermione pulled Agent and Harry into an empty corner.

“Let’s think and get our facts together,” she rubbed her forehead. “Tony’s being accused of being a serial killer. We know he’s not, but he’s being set up by the real Killer, whose identity is still anyone’s guess. Michel, on the other hand, has been looking for someone who has seen, heard or done something they shouldn’t have. Padfoot runs across Tony in Britain or something, who must have been tracking the Killer, only to have him panic about losing his cover, attack Padfoot or something to keep his cover and send him to us with a clue to let us help. Tony’s gone into hiding, Michel is here and recognized Agent and – Harry,” she looked up with wide brown eyes. “How do we know _Michel_ isn’t the Ministry Killer?”

“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves,” he shook his head.

“No, listen. Agent said that Tony sent him, right? All this time we’ve been thinking that it was because Tony was undercover. Maybe he wasn’t. The MK was confronting Tony, because Tony’s too good at being an investigator. Maybe we should have asked Agent if he was caught in the crossfire! Then Tony would have sent the clue with Agent while he went off the radar to collect enough evidence so that Tony could bring the real Killer to light!”

It did make sense, but…

“So, maybe the evidence is this gold star we’re supposed to find? But what about this ‘OL’ person? Is that Agent? What does it mean? And what is Carlin’s role in all this and why am I being dragged into the middle of it?”

Hermione looked around and blew out a sigh. “All good questions. But now, I’m starting to doubt anyone being a Death Eater.”

“They could still be working for Riddle,” Harry pointed out.

“But I have a feeling that they’re working by themselves.”

Agent, sitting quietly during the entire conversation, whuffed.

“You probably didn’t want us to worry about Tony,” Hermione smiled slightly down at him.

“So, now, Michel’s after Agent,” Harry crossed his arms. “Could he have seen something?”

“I don’t know, but now we need to be more careful than ever. Harry, you don’t think Michel knows the truth, do you?”

Harry shook his head. “Something’s telling me no. Why wouldn’t there have been a sighting report or something, anyway?”

“You’re right.”

Once the group was whole once more, they trekked back to Vince’s house. The conversation had changed a few times, so Harry and Hermione just listened.

“I wouldn’t be able to imagine it,” Phil shook his head. “Being beaten up by a couple of kids. It’s understandable that an adult would be upset.”

“It’d be even more embarrassing if the one doing the beating up was an eleven year old Hufflepuff,” Vince grinned.

“Twelve.”

“No, you’re right,” Phil nodded thoughtfully. “Of course, by the time – twelve? As in, you?” he whipped around to stare at AJ.

“You’re twelve?” Harry jolted out of his thoughts. “Since when?”

“Yesterday.”

Phil walked into a tree, still staring at her. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“We would’ve thrown a party for you,” Vince told her. “Mum loves parties.”

“But we were busy with Phil and Agent,” she lifted a shoulder. “And I still felt a bit ill. I’m better now, though. We were just busy and I didn’t find the right time to bring it up. Besides, aren’t parties supposed to have plans a day in advance? That’s what Piper’s always said.”

“Well, I’m sure your sister meant more complex parties,” Hermione waved her concern away.

Harry remembered too late that Hermione didn’t know. He glanced at AJ, who sighed.

“Piper’s not my sister,” she told the older brunette. “She’s my Foster Mum.”

“I am so sorry,” she blanched. “I had no idea – ”

“That’s alright. I’m still getting used to it. I’ve been with her and her husband for almost a year and a half now. I’ve been in the system for almost three.”

Hermione immediately grabbed her and hugged her tight. Harry had to smile as AJ looked startled to be in such intimate contact with someone she didn’t really spend much time around.

“Poor AJ,” Phil sniffed, wiping his eyes.

“Now we’re really going to throw you a birthday party,” Vince was determined.

Agent barked in complete agreement.

** * 


	38. Chapter 38

Almost twenty four hours later, Harry sat back in his chair with a full tummy.

“That’s one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time,” Phil sat next to him. “I really have to hand it to you, ma’am. You know how to keep us guests happy.”

“Nothing to it,” Collie smiled, flushing at the praise as the others agreed. “I’ve had practice.”

Harry looked around at the Hufflepuff themed decorations. Being more used to Gryffindor, he thought it looked nice. There was a homey feeling to the living room that reminded him of visiting the Hufflepuff Commons.

Agent watched from his pillow near the fireplace. He’d been alert since the Encounter last afternoon and Harry couldn’t blame him for it. Sirius probably had no idea what Michel wanted from him and it was entirely possible that Michel was afraid of what would happen once the magical bind wore off and Sirius could tell what had happened.

Tony had disappeared off everyone’s radar and Harry understood why, but missed him nonetheless. All he and Hermione could do was find ‘gold star’ and pray they had something else to go on.

“I think I’m just about ready for dessert,” Phil rubbed his hands together.

“AJ isn’t quite ready for cake yet,” Vince told him with a grin. “It’s something that we do for our birthdays every year. We invite some people for our parties and open two presents before cake. An extra big slice, four scoops of ice cream and a flood of chocolate sauce later, and then we get to open the rest of them.”

“That’s quite a lot,” Hermione shook her head.

“Well, my great grandmother started it,” Collie told them. “It’s been a tradition ever since.”

“Nothing wrong with traditions,” Harry smiled widely.

“Go on, AJ,” Collie told her. “Who do you want presents from?”

The Hufflepuff needed no time to think, “Collie and Agent.”

“AJ, I’m not sure what you want Agent to give you,” Vince began, only to laugh as Agent produced a rather large wrapped bone from within his pillow and trotted forward with it in his mouth.

There were a few other laughs as AJ reached forward and thanked him with straight-faced solemnity. She unwrapped it and blinked. “Hey, this isn’t a bone at all! It just looks like one.”

“Really?” Phil blinked. He looked closer. “She’s right! It looks like a container. Can you open it?”

Harry shook his head in amusement. It seemed like something that Sirius would do to draw a laugh – offering AJ a bone -, but at the same time, cleverly disguising the true present seemed like something that Tony would do.

And a cleverly disguised present it was.

The bone was actually a container that was designed to look like an actual bone. Inside, was a fairly big object.

AJ unscrewed the end of the bone container and gave a peek inside before carefully sliding out one of the most beautiful hair brushes that Harry had ever seen. It was a glass brush with the Hufflepuff emblem on the back and it was surrounded by small yellow flowers that – oddly enough – looked freshly picked. When the brush was turned, the handle was glass, too, but with a braided yellow substance set in the middle that reminded Harry of the braided grass Tony had done at the Burrow. The brush bristles were black with yellow tips and AJ smiled beautifully.

“Thank you so much!” she almost choked him in her enthusiasm.

Everyone dutifully admired it and Collie playfully grumbled about being shown up by a dog. Her present was a small picture frame with vines along the border.

Once everyone had some cake, as dictated by the rest of the tradition, they went back to presents.

Vince got her a gardening trowel; Hermione gave her a ‘small’ jewelry box (one that was portable, but could hold twenty necklaces, fifty bracelets and one hundred pairs of earrings – all automatically sorted by size, color or preference frequency (Harry had no idea what she could possibly do with all that jewelry, but AJ had been pleased, so he didn’t argue) -, though Harry wasn’t entirely sure what use a non-portable jewelry box would be or even look like); Harry got her a pair of water-themed socks (“For your unexpected journeys,” they shared a smile.); and Phil got her a slingshot.

“It’s good practice for archery,” he told her, showing her how it worked. “It’s essential for young women to know how to defend herself, but it’s also useful for knocking apples down.”

Eventually, Phil had to leave for America for his freelance work and everyone bid him a mournful farewell. Even Agent, who had grown attached to the blond American over the short week, had howled with despair.

“Come now, Agent,” he rubbed his ears comfortingly. “I’ll see you all again. This isn’t good-bye, more like a see you later.”

“We’ll be in Hogsmeade again before the end of the year,” Harry added. “And if Phil can’t make it, you can always come by next year. You’ll be chasing sticks and Phil up trees before you know it.”

“I’m getting better,” the blond defended himself amidst the laughter and good natured teasing.

“We’ll see if you remember that the next time we see you,” Hermione giggled.

They waved him off at the door and the rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for everyone’s different trips.

AJ went to bed early because of a bad headache that gradually built up over the course of the day, leaving the older three students sitting near the fire as Collie went up herself.

“It’s been great having you here,” Vince told Harry and Hermione as they played a card game.

“It’s been great being here,” Hermione assured. “Right, Harry?”

“Yeah, it has,” he nodded. “Maybe we can do this again next year.”

“And you can bring Ron with you,” Vince suggested. “It’s always interesting to see the Trio interacting with each other.”

“Entertaining, you mean,” Harry snuck a peek at Hermione, who rolled her eyes. She and Ron’s arguments may have diminished in frequency this past year, but they still happened.

She won their card game and settled down with a book as Vince went to make more hot chocolate and Harry went upstairs to make sure he had everything for tomorrow’s trip to the States.

Hermione wouldn’t tell him what she did, but Collie would return the beds back to school – or the house-elves would – and shrink their trunks to be put in their bag pockets, not anticipating needing them.

In any event, he’d enjoyed the break overall, but really couldn’t wait until he and the others could get back to helping Tony come home from wherever he was. He also had to make sure Agent was as far from Carlin and Michel as possible. Obviously, the last two weeks of the holidays would be covered, but what to do when they got back to school?

Harry sighed as he made another round of his borrowed room. He shouldn’t worry about things he had no control over. They had to proceed slowly so that no suspicion was cast on them. There was also the possibility that they could make a mistake or miss something important. That was not an option.

He was digging through his pockets – wondering why he was expecting to find anything in them (not that it was the first time nor would it be the last) when they were already empty – when he heard his door creak open.

He half turned to look, but no one was there. “Hello?” he poked his head out the door to an empty hallway. “Huh,” he blinked. He stepped back to shut the door, only to turn around – and almost had a heart attack when he came face to face with AJ still in her sleeping gown.

“AJ,” he gasped, holding his heart, “once again, I beg you: _please_ don’t sneak around like that.” He was going to have heart failure before his twenties, he just knew it.

Refocusing on the silent brunette in front of him, he noticed that her gown was a pale green. With her unbound hair, she almost appeared like what a young wood nymph would look like.

Well, what Harry always imagined one to look like.

“Feeling better, then? If you’re hungry, I’m sure Vince would be happy enough to feed you.” It took him a few moments to realize that AJ was eerily still. “AJ?” he noticed her staring straight ahead and tilted his head to look into her eyes.

Once he did, however, a cold shiver raced up and down his spine when he saw her unfocused, glassy gaze, grey a thin layer around expanded pupils.

This look was something that he’d seen on someone else.

“AJ –”

She opened her mouth and words spilled from her, the implications of which Harry would be too shaken to understand until later.

When she closed her mouth again, an eerie silence fell over them before she simply walked past and out the door.

** **


	39. Chapter 39

It was seven in the morning when Harry and Hermione arrived in the office of Agent Doug Donners via Floo.

“I’ll never get used to the different times,” Hermione sighed, dusting herself off as she looked around.

Harry followed her gaze to the neat and tidy office.

There was a couch and a few armchairs, some framed documents on the wall and the desk, though organized, had loads of files on it.

“I was assured that Agent Donners wouldn’t mind us coming in,” Hermione shrugged.

“Without an excuse?”

“Oh, we’ve got an excuse,” she smiled. She shouldered her bag and headed for the door, and when she opened it, quite a few people were already hard at work. Multicolored planes flew overhead, much like in the Ministry.

“Think Tony’s got a desk here?” Harry looked around. No one seemed to be paying them any mind, so they just stood and watched the others in the division. It was still early.

“We’re also waiting for Palmer,” Hermione added. “He should be meeting us.”

“Alright,” he nodded. Soon, he realized that they hadn’t gone as unnoticed as they had thought. There was a young man – about a few years older than they were – watching them thoughtfully. He waved when he saw Harry’s wide-eyed gaze and hopped off the desk he was perched on.

“Hi, there,” he wandered over to them. “I don’t suppose you’re here for Palmer, are you?”

“You suppose right,” Hermione smiled brightly. “He was supposed to meet us here, but I don’t see him.”

“He’s downstairs, near the door,” the young man told them. His shoulder length dirty blond hair was pulled back and he wore black-framed glasses. “My name’s Leon (Lay-on), but most call me Le. I can take you to Palmer, if you like.”

“We would appreciate it,” Hermione agreed, poking Harry to get a similar response.

They set out from the room and Harry looked around as they set off down the hall. It was a regular office hallway, doors opening and closing as people came and went.

“I know this floor’s not very impressive,” Le admitted, “but it is just one floor.”

“Do you know a Tony DiNozzo?” Harry had to ask. “Does he work in this part of the building?”

“You know him, too?” Le grinned widely. “He’s one of my favorite Agents to work with. It’s a shame about that undercover case,” he lamented. “Tony would’ve loved to show you around. He’s got this tour guide routine for the Probies – newcomers – and we all just love it.”

“Does he have a desk here?” Hermione asked, turning a smile on Harry with a knowing glint. Maybe the gold star was here. It certainly didn’t hurt to look.

“Better than that,” Le stopped in front of a door. “He has an office. Being a senior Liaison, he doesn’t have to share space unless he wants to. All the senior Liaisons with NCIS have their own offices,” he nodded at the door they were in front of. “In there.”

Harry looked again to be sure it was alright before opening the door. It opened up to yet another hall, but this time, however, there were names on the door.

“Palmer doesn’t technically work here,” Le added, trailing them. “But he’s a Wizard working for the Muggle Navy, so it’s not unusual to see him around.”

“Especially since Tony works here,” Hermione tugged Harry’s sleeve as she found Tony’s name.

“I’m just going to head downstairs,” Le told them. “Don’t leave the office, alright?”

Neither heard him leave, both preoccupied to pay much attention.

Harry slowly tried the door and found it unlocked. He slowly opened it to reveal a fairly comfortable space.

There were three armchairs and a sofa surrounding a coffee table in the corner of the room. A file cabinet sat next to a bookcase with a number of books on the shelves.

“I should have known he liked Quidditch,” Hermione huffed as she spied no less than four books about it.

There were a few Muggle posters on the wall, next to Magical ones, and framed pictures around the room as well. One picture showed an obviously younger Tony with two other men, one a blond with green eyes and the other a mustached brunet with sparkling blue. The frame said ‘Welcome to Denver’, so Harry presumed it had been on vacation.

Another picture had Tony posing with an older man in what looked to be a park, the man’s brown eyes lit up as the pair smiled at the camera.

There was another picture next to that, but it was of a car’s back window in severe need of washing. The words ‘Never Forget’ written in the dirt made Harry wonder if it was taken in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, which led him to wonder if Tony could predict those like he did the weather.

A picture closer to the desk was really a framed article about New Scotland Yard and something about an internet phenomena going by the name ‘Hatman’.

On the actual desk itself, Tony had taken a picture of a curly haired man in a coat and blue scarf with his head bend down to his mobile as another man – with a mix of brown and blond hair – fiddled with a poker chip as he was in the middle of what looked to be teasing the other man.

A smaller frame held a sketch of a D in a magnifying glass and an unusual looking button with the letters CSA on it was mounted in the same frame.

“I don’t see a gold star,” Hermione piped up from where she’d ended up at the coffee table.

“I don’t, either,” Harry shrugged. It was a nice office, but Harry felt a pang of longing whenever he reminded himself that this was Tony’s space. It would’ve been better, he decided, if Tony had been there, too.

He was aware of Hermione moving around as he tried the desk drawers. The first he tried held pens, pencils, inkwells, quills and parchment among other odds and ends.

The second held files and the third one was locked. He told Hermione about it, but they still couldn’t do magic – being underage – so they would ask Le about it when he returned.

“I don’t know what it is or how to find it,” Hermione huffed out a sigh as she sifted through the files in the second drawer. “But I really don’t quite think it’s here.”

Harry hummed as he looked around at the office. “Maybe Palmer was right about the star being in Tony’s apartment.”

“Harry,” he blinked at her tone and turned to see her holding a file.

“Hermione, I don’t think – ”

“It’s a file on James Potter.”

“What?” Harry’s eyes snapped up to hers before reaching out for it. “But why would Tony have a file on my dad?”

It was indeed a file on James Potter when he had been an Auror with the Ministry during Voldemort’s first reign of terror. All his father’s accomplishments were there for his perusal.

“I don’t know,” Hermione shook her head, not entirely sure herself at this turn of events or what it could mean. “Do you think it could be related to what he was doing before disappearing?”

Harry didn’t know. “Well, maybe he was looking into Sirius’ case again,” he mused. “You know he didn’t believe what everyone else did about my Godfather.”

She nodded thoughtfully, smiling slightly as she held up the file on Sirius Black as an Auror before being tossed into Azkaban. “You could be right.”

They had just returned the files and closed the drawer when Palmer arrived.

“I was worried when you didn’t come down with Le,” he adjusted his glasses. “He said you were in here, so I thought I would go to you. It’s not that much out of the way,” he mused. “We can use the Apparition Point on this floor if you want.”

“What’s in here?” Hermione asked about the third drawer.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Tony’s had that drawer locked since before I knew him. No one knows what’s in there. Someone was actually foolish enough to try to open it,” he smiled vindictively. 

Harry wasn’t sure he felt comfortable enough to ask. Who knows what kind of spells Tony had at his disposal. He wasn’t sure he wanted to.

“Where’s Leon?” Hermione suddenly looked around.

“Right there,” Palmer nodded behind them.

Harry blinked before slowly turning around to see Leon and another that looked to be his age watching them interact while leaning against the wall.

“Where did you two come from?” he frowned, not having seen either of them come in after Palmer.

“This is my twin, Jay,” he introduced the head band wearing brunet at his side. They had similar facial features, but the same warm brown eyes and kind smile as they bowed and chorused, “Welcome to the MNP!”

Palmer smiled fondly at them. “Jay and Le Philips are Special Liaisons to the MNP offices worldwide. They can get in and out to talk to the Witches and Wizards in the Muggle workplaces so that we don’t have to use other means that can get us found out.”

“A Special Liaison to the Liaisons?” Harry smiled as Hermione tilted her head slightly.

“I don’t mean to offend,” she looked like she understood, “but are the both of you dead?”

“Got it in one!” Jay beamed.

“Really?” Harry blinked. Besides the Hogwarts Ghosts… “Do you know a –?”

“Sally Malik?” Jay grinned. “Yup. She was here some time ago to hang out with Tony at NCIS.”

“She helped Abby with her magpie case,” Palmer recalled.

“Oh,” Harry looked between the twins. “I’m… sorry? But it’s nice to meet you…”

“Oh, it’s always a pleasure to meet famous celebrities,” Jay grinned at him.

“I think we’re finished here,” Hermione commented.

“Right,” Palmer nodded. “We can go,” he turned toward the door. “It’s about time for breakfast, really, and – _what are you doing here?!_ I mean, hey, Mac! What brings you around?”

“That’s not at _all_ suspicious,” Jay rolled his eyes as Harry and Hermione whirled toward the door to see Mac McKenzie watching them thoughtfully in amusement.

“Colonel,” Harry smiled uneasily. “Er, good morning?”

“It won’t be for Palmer if he doesn’t get moving,” she shrugged.

“Oh, yes. I should – _we_ should get going,” he shuffled past her and back into the main hall. The Gryffindors followed with the brothers following behind, leaving Mac to lock up Tony’s office.

“So,” she drawled once they were all in the main corridor. “Do I want to know?”

“It’s for post-graduation ideas,” Hermione jumped in. “I know that a lot of our classmates will end up at the Ministry, but I just wanted to keep our options open.”

“You want to work for the MNP?” Le asked. “Do we have a program like that? I know NCIS has intern programs and the like.”

“It’ll be nice to have allies from different countries be involved,” Jay shrugged. The twins went on about the different countries on MNP’s ally list as they wandered down the hall, leaving the group behind.

“Well, it was nice to see you again,” Harry politely turned to Mac.

“Good to see you, too,” she smiled in response. “Palmer, the clock is ticking,” she reminded. They waved before heading off after the twins as Mack watched. She smirked slightly as they rounded a corner and left her sight. “Not a bad liar, that one,” she mused, heading back on her path before she had heard their voices coming from Tony’s office.

Mac wasn’t dumb or stupid. She knew that there was something going on, but she wasn’t getting in the way. She wanted Tony back just as much as they did and who knows. Maybe they would stumble onto something while they were there.

** *

Palmer led them down the stairs to the lobby. The twins were off to do… whatever it was they did, so it was only Harry and Hermione that were left.

Harry looked around as the pair followed the American.

Still going down, they passed multiple signs in every color imaginable. Some were notices, others flyers and others still were full of scribbles in different handwritings.

“We can write to each other on them,” Palmer glanced back at them. “Sort of like a message board.”

They passed Agents just coming in and quite a few greeted Palmer on their way up.

“I mostly help with the Greenhouse,” he explained. “Most of them have all come out there at one time or another. I also work with the Healers.”

“I thought you didn’t work here,” Hermione was taking her own look around.

“He doesn’t,” a passing Agent cheerfully agreed. “But he’s the only one who can deal with the level Five plants without kicking a fuss. We just kind of adopted him from there.”

“Really?” Palmer stared. “When did that happen?”

“Don’t know. Long before I got here.”

They eventually made it to the lobby where all kinds of Agents were coming in to start the day.

“The lifts aren’t anything like the ones in the Ministry,” Harry saw quite a number enter what looked like a small, mobile sitting room. It actually looked comfortable from what he saw before the doors closed.

“I don’t expect they are,” Palmer agreed. “Almost all the elevators go to the same floors, but there are certain ones that take you to certain locations.”

“I guess that makes sense,” he looked up at the ceiling to see paper planes gathered near the top. “I guess it’s mostly the same no matter what your country is.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” a passing Agent agreed.

“Oh, hey, Fred,” Palmer smiled brightly at the … _interesting_ wizard.

“Hey, Palmer. Found him yet?”

He winced. “No, but we’re trying.”

“Better get to him before the headhunters do,” Fred’s multicolored Mohawk swayed as he shook his head. “Tony’s the only person on the East Coast who I can talk shop with.”

“You, er, know Tony?” Harry questioned.

“Everybody knows Tony DiNozzo,” the other shrugged. “Not all like him, maybe, but it is what it is. And I’m not buying the ‘undercover’ story, either. It doesn’t take a damn good Agent like Tony to start connecting the dots, especially when the _Prophet_ started running the MK articles. And, word has it,” he leaned closer to Harry, “the higher ups have been investigating Tony’s activities before disappearing. They even tried to toss his office, but Donners claimed territorial rights. Not like the Agency can get in, anyway. Tony spelled his office _right_.”

“Is it true that Agents ended up in Australia?” Palmer wanted to know.

“Eh. A few might’ve missed ending up on dry land,” he smirked.

“Palmer, Stevens.”

“Morning, sir,” Palmer snapped to as Fred raised a pierced brow.

Harry studied the well-dressed older man heading toward them with a suitcase in one hand and an extra-large cup held in his other. “This is Agent Donners?” Harry murmured to Hermione.

“I think so,” she whispered back, studying him as well.

“Hey, Donners,” Fred raised a hand.

“New look, Stevens?” brown eyes raked over the Mohawk.

“Same as last week.”

“Good, good,” he nodded. “Keep up the good work. Palmer, I want that report by midnight.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And drop the ‘sir’, Palmer,” he grumbled, gulping his coffee. “I don’t do formal with anyone who’s seen me in my underwear.”

“Oh-ho!” Fred grinned. “Something to tell us, Palmer?”

“Not like _that_! I had to take out his appendix!”

“What does that have to do with seeing Donners in skivvies?”

Palmer sputtered, flushing bright red, as Harry and Hermione exchanged looks.

“I’m alright with it,” Harry offered. People being gay never bothered him. Not like they could help it, after all, much in the same way that anyone couldn’t help having (or not having) magic, Harry couldn’t help being able to talk to snakes or Tony being able to predict the weather.

“I don’t really know many gay people,” Hermione patted the ME Assistant on the arm, “but the ones I’ve met have always been lovely.”

“It’s not like that!”

“Keep telling yourself,” Fred teased. “We’ll all believe it someday.”

Hermione eventually took pity on the poor man and reminded him that they still had things to take care of “so, it would really productive if we left now.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Harry turned to Fred.

“Same here, but listen,” he leaned closer and dropped his voice. “Help Palmer find him. Do what you can. A lot of people don’t want to be suspected as accessories to murders that we _know_ Tony’s not responsible for, but a lot of us miss him.”

“Others know who the MK is suspected of being?” Harry was both astonished and relieved. Then he remembered just what kind of Wizards and Witches were streaming past him. It only stood to reason that others who knew and worked with Tony would also believe in him. Then again, even the NCIS team didn’t have that level of belief. Even though they practically _lived_ with Tony, they still doubted him.

“And not all of us believe it,” he confirmed. “And, you know, I miss him even more than I would some people.”

“Really?”

“He’s the only one who actually calls me by my real name.”

“It’s not Fred Stevens? What is it, then?”

“Nope,” he winked. “Find Tony first. Call it motivation.”

Fred and Donners waved them off on their way and headed for the elevator.

“Stevens?” Donners took another gulp of coffee.

“Yeah?”

“That who I thought it was?”

“If you thought it was who I thought it was, yeah.”

“Hm.”

** *


	40. Chapter 40

“Yeah,” Palmer nodded thoughtfully, leading them out of an alley he had apparated them into. “Mac had said there were rumors going around that Tony was innocent. Not enough believe it, though. I’m not sure what Donners believes.”

“Well, it’s good that Tony has people who believe in him,” Hermione smiled.

“But Fred said they have to be careful in showing their support,” Harry added.

“Yeah, the Agency’s getting kind of desperate in helping the Aurors find their suspect.”

“The fragile relationship from that one article?” Harry remembered.

“Yeah, it’s a complicated issue, but that doesn’t stop the Agents from trying to help.”

“So, it’s mostly political, then,” Hermione nodded.

“Palmer, where are we going?” Harry looked at their surroundings. The three had been walking down a moderately busy street with no apparent destination.

“Cup o' Joe,” he smiled reassuringly. “I have to get back to the office, so I can’t stash you at Tony’s like I want to yet. Susie will have a copy of the key for you, because Tony’s spelled his place against magical entry.”

That sounded fair, Harry supposed. Who knew how many Wizards could potentially want Tony out of the way. Harry didn’t think Tony had been taken by anyone like that, though.

The pair followed Palmer a few more minutes before entering a nice, mid-sized café. There were tables at one end of the dining area, booths on the other and a bar set up in front of the kitchen area.

“Hey, Palmer,” one of the young men in uniform greeted warmly.

“Hi. Susie in?”

“Yeah, in the back,” he went to go get her as Palmer settled the Brits in a booth.

“I’ll see you later,” he promised. “Hopefully we don’t get multiple serial killers like last year. I didn’t go home for almost a week trying to keep up with them all!”

“Alright, then,” Hermione nodded. “Be careful, Palmer.”

When he left a few minutes later, a waiter came by with their breakfast menus before going to fulfill their drink orders and left them to their own devices.

Harry looked around at the almost empty diner and sighed. He thought it would be kind of different here than back across the pond. Then again, it was still relatively early here and they had recently had lunch before they left. AJ and Sirius had left after breakfast.

“Harry.”

He wondered when she would get around to asking. “Yes, Hermione?”

“What did AJ ever do to you?” she frowned, brown eyes flashing in the Hufflepuff’s defense. “You were not acting like a friend, Harry.”

He knew that, really. But he hadn’t forgotten what AJ had said and he was still a little freaked out about it. Shame and guilt washed over him as he thought back to hurt, puzzled and taken aback grey eyes aimed at him before she left.

It had been one thing with Trelawney, but with AJ… it had seemed more… intense? Something… and he’d been rattled with it. There was also the realization that all of his suspicions about her throughout the past months had pointed him in a direction only confirmed by AJ herself. It had been one thing to suspect, but now Harry knew that she was a –

“Well, bless my soul! Mr. P!” a familiar blonde scurried over to them. “Welcome to America!”

“I thought you always go to… the Alley in the morning.”

“Well, yeah, but it’s not morning over there anymore, now, is it?”

“The time difference,” Hermione rubbed her eyes. “We sort of ate already.”

“We’ll downsize it,” Susie from the flower stand in Diagon Alley assured. “What can I get you?”

The pair stayed about an hour getting their bearings and watching Susan do her job before the blonde sent them out with a map and instructions to go along with the key to Tony’s place. It wasn’t very cold as it would be back home, but they still shivered when the wind hit them.

Evidently, Tony lived on the fourth floor of an apartment complex and Harry and Hermione entered the building lobby. There was a wall of mailboxes on the left before you turned the corner into a hall that led to some ground (first) floor apartments. On the right stood a desk for administrative purposes and right in front of the pair was the lifts. The stairs, Harry presumed, was near the desk in a niche steps from the elevator.

“Should we take the stairs?” Hermione wanted to know.

“Yeah,” he nodded, leading the way. Now that they were here and one step closer to finding Tony, Harry found himself filled with restless energy to be doing something.

Hermione silently followed and they steadily made their way up. “We didn’t finish talking,” she pointed out as they rested for a moment.

“I’ll apologize to AJ the next time I see her,” he assured. He would, too. He felt like such a git to act like he did around someone who probably hadn’t realized her abilities. Maybe that was why she sleepwalked.

He wondered when others would realize what they had. Had they been AJ’s age or older?

“Make sure that you do,” Hermione prodded, oddly defensive over someone who didn’t much like her. They had forged a tentative bond while sharing a room at Vince’s house. “But I would like an explanation, Harry. It wasn’t like you at all.”

He wouldn’t know how to explain it, first of all, and second, he wasn’t entirely sure she would believe him.

Luckily, they ended up on their floor and Harry pushed on the door of the stairwell and started slightly when he saw Jay on the other side, looking just as surprised.

“Jay?” Hermione blinked. “Did we forget something?”

“No, uh, Palmer forgot to tell you a few things, so he asked me to check on you.”

“Sounded like he had it all,” Harry offered, remembering Palmer saying that the two would be staying at Tony’s place during their trip.

“Yeah, but it’s just a few bits. Anyway, his place is right here,” he nodded at the first door on their left. “I’ll see you inside,” he disappeared before they could respond.

Sharing an uncertain look, Hermione stepped up to the door and took out the key. She heaved in a deep breath before inserting the key and exhaled as she turned it. The door unlocked and – sharing one more look – she turned the knob.

Harry went to stand next to her as she pushed the door open. They took a step and almost immediately, a shiver raced down his spine before a warmth started filling him.

“It’s Tony’s magic,” she breathed next to him, brown eyes wide.

He agreed, feeling content as his magic connected with the Italian’s. Tony’s magic’s presence infused almost every surface, but the overall presence was subtle – partly due to time and partly due to the reason that Tony didn’t seem to spend much time there -, so much so that Harry figured that the marriage bond was responsible for his almost enhanced sensitivity toward the Italian’s magic.

Although, Harry was surprised at how settled he quickly became after that. He had thought that it would have affected him a little more considering that they hadn’t had contact with him in months.

“In here, guys,” Jay called.

There was a small closet in front of them that revealed coats and shoes, so they took theirs off. A hallway led them right into a decent sized living space that reminded them of Tony’s office with various objects spread over the room. There didn’t seem to be a slightly magical presence like the office did, though. Harry bet that he wouldn’t have known a Wizard lived here if he wasn’t married to him and could feel traces of his magic.

“Does Tony do a lot of magic here?” Hermione casually wanted to know.

“No, he doesn’t really need to,” Jay stood in the middle of the room. “Of course, his natural magic seeps out and spreads over the room and whatever else is in it. Not overpowering or anything, but a trace amount to make him feel better. He would still have to _perform_ magic, all the Wizards do. Even you two have natural magic that seeps out once you’ve been in one place long enough. A residual blowback, if you will. Like, when you fire a gun, the powder gets on your hands, right? It’s the same idea with magic. Tony’s lived here for years, so I honestly don’t expect as much of a blowback from you two as I would from him.”

Hermione nodded as Harry looked around at the objects more closely.

“That sounds reasonable,” she agreed, putting her backpack against the wall. “It’s sort of like how I know that the year’s finished and I’m home when I step into my bedroom. A sort of… what’s the word? Touch point?”

“It’s not unusual to have a ‘port’. Most of the Wizards and Witches I’ve met all have a little oasis, too, to calm. You can’t really explain it, right? I mean, you know how you feel, but you don’t have the words. I can see them when they enter their port. They’re calm and relaxed.”

Harry tuned them out as Hermione went on to ask about magical education in the area. Instead, he turned his attention to Tony’s space, much like his office. Again, he couldn’t seem to find any obvious signs of a Wizard’s presence.

Even Vince’s house had magical objects tucked into corners and other empty, out of the way spaces that you wouldn’t notice even with magic, but even then, you had to have some idea of what to look for. Here in Tony’s space, however, there were no such things.

Muggle books and magazines on Muggle subjects lined the Muggle bookcase. Next to that, a state of the art Muggle entertainment center with assorted Muggle movies and telly shows. The rest of the room – armchairs, couch, coffee and end tables, as well as a few lamps – was all Muggle, too, as far as he could tell.

“Harry. Harry,” Jay called over. “You can put your stuff in the guestroom. You, too, Hermione. Harry can have the couch, it pulls out into a bed and we can find Tony’s sleeping bag if you want. Hermione can have the guest room.”

“That’s okay,” Harry shrugged. If they found this gold star, it would be more than worth it.

Jay told them that Palmer would check on them on his break and that they were welcome to anything in the kitchen. He also said that they should make a list of what they needed and Susie would get it for them. Then he told them that they would probably see him or his brother before they left.

After he had gone, Hermione looked around the room. “Well, we’re here.”

“Guess we’ll put our things in the guestroom, then,” Harry hefted his pack back onto his shoulder and headed down the hall past the laundry room off of the living room. The master bedroom on the right, a water closet further down the hall and the guest room across from it.

“It’s a nice place,” Hermione commented as they piled into the room. “I never would have noticed a Wizard living here if it wasn’t for the bond.”

“You noticed, too?” Harry had to smile. Of course, Hermione would. She was smart and, honestly, Harry wouldn’t have been surprised if she saw it before he did. “Think the gold star is a magical object?”

“It could very well be,” she set her things down with a sigh. “I think he hid all his magical things, but I couldn’t begin to think where.”

“Where should we start?”

“First, I think we need to look in the kitchen to see if we might need anything. Then, we’ll go through each room to see what we can do and what would be the best place to start.”

That sounded reasonable.

“And we may as well start looking in the kitchen, while we’re there. Palmer can help when we go a little further.”

** *

By the time Palmer stumbled in at lunch, Harry and Hermione had already cleared half the kitchen and had a small list ready for Susie.

“Seems like you two are natural investigators,” he grinned at them.

Harry shrugged, “It’s more like practice.” You didn’t live through the past five years as one of the Trio without developing some skills at mystery solving, after all.

“Palmer,” Hermione looked up from the silverware spread out on a clean towel. “You have some idea as to what we’re searching for, correct?”

“Yeah, but it’s still a good idea to search every corner, because I have no idea what Tony did with it.”

Harry was checking under the sink with a small torch that he’d found taped to the underside of one of the cupboard shelves and sighed. “What exactly happened before Tony disappeared? Could he have taken it with him?”

“No,” Palmer shook his head. “If he was on an MNP case, sure, but he’d just finished one. Donners told him to focus on NCIS for a while.”

“Then who started the rumor that Tony was undercover?”

“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” he shrugged. “Remember how easy it is to start rumors? I don’t even know if it _was_ MNP he was working on. For all we know, it was NCIS, but no one can be completely sure what happened. From what I remember, he hadn’t been planning to leave or anything. He would have said something. I mean, if anything, he’d just come back from the Ministry.”

“What?” Hermione’s head snapped up. “The Ministry?”

“Yeah. Said something about a project. He didn’t leave DC until he left after that.”

“What would he be doing at the Ministry?” Harry frowned.

“You never know with Tony. I mean, I can ask around, but I doubt I’ll get anything.”

“Do that,” Harry agreed. “If we know why he was at the Ministry, we may be able to figure out what happened when.”

“Reconstructing the timeline of events,” he nodded. “At this point, I know that he had taken trips to the Ministry, but I don’t know why.”

“We can ask Mr. Weasley about it,” Hermione assured. “See if he’s heard anything.”

“Think he met the victims there?” Harry frowned.

“We know Tony didn’t kill them, but maybe he got to talking to them and they said something that someone didn’t want them talking about.”

“So, whoever overheard the victims talking to Tony killed them?” Palmer leaned against the counter. “What makes them think that Tony wouldn’t have told someone. “Why not kill Tony to keep him – no. No, that wouldn’t have worked, either. One of them may have talked to whoever would have been investigating. Keep Tony alive, frame him for murder and make sure that he takes the fall. Tony wouldn’t have a chance.”

“Like Sirius Black,” Harry swallowed. Now, he _really_ didn’t want to find Tony.

“But unlike Black,” Hermione pointed out, “Tony’s got you and you can have Tony’s case investigated thoroughly.”

“I guess what we need to find out,” Palmer ruffled his hair, “is what happened the day he disappeared, why he’s been visiting the Ministry, if he met the victims and what exactly the gold star has to do with anything.”

“You can find out what happened before he disappeared,” Hermione sat back on her heels. “We can try to figure out the Ministry side of things.”

“And we’ll figure out the star part,” Harry added.

“But we all need to be careful,” Palmer warned. “If someone else gets wind of this, we’ll be taken off the case.”

“Why not?” Harry smiled slightly. “We’ve already got the teachers suspicious of us. Why not keep it from governments, too?”

“That’s the spirit,” Palmer had to laugh. “We’ll make cops out of you yet.”

** *

Hours passed and Harry found himself yawning.

“It’s still early,” Hermione noted, stifling her own. “It’s probably the jet lag. I don’t really travel that much, but being taken through many time-zones is bound to affect us somehow."

“I think we should call it a night,” Harry shook his head. They’d cleared the kitchen, coat closet – as well as checking all the pockets within that closet – and just finished the laundry room. They had a small loo, guest bath and master bath, the bedrooms and the living room left.

“I agree,” Hermione nodded. “Do you want to eat here or at the Joe?”

“Joe,” Harry decided. “I’d like to get a look around the building.”

“And ask around?” she smiled.

Soon, they had everything back in order and were locking up.

“You know,” Hermione continued as they went downstairs. “Now, I have to wonder if Tony was investigating the Killer to begin with.”

“Maybe the Killer’s looking for Tony, too.”

“But there’s also Sirius to think about,” she sighed. “If Tony wasn’t investigating anything when he disappeared, then what happened with Sirius? Was he beaten up by someone else and Tony came along, running from someone else?”

“Maybe Tony saved Sirius from Michel,” Harry shrugged. “But the question is, how did Michel run into Sirius?” There were a lot of things that just didn’t make sense.

“We do know that Michel is involved somehow,” Hermione mused. “Or he wouldn’t have recognized Sirius. Whether Michel did anything to Tony – or was involved somehow – we just don’t know for sure. We also know that Sirius has to be this ‘OL’ they were looking for.”

“But none of this explains _my_ involvement,” he pointed out. “Why kill me? If Michel or Carlin aren’t working for Riddle…”

It all came back to the gold star. They needed to find it before they left America for the Burrow.

They walked out of the building and down the street before entering the Cup o’ Joe. Susie sketched a wave at them as she hurried past and another waitress saw them to a table. She took their drink orders and left them alone.

Harry was debating what he wanted to eat, but was thinking about soup, when a chair plunked down at their table and Fred Stevens – or not Fred Stevens, as Harry still didn’t know what Fred’s real name was – plopped down into it.

“Palmer’s all tied up at the Yard,” he explained, spiky Mohawk now lying flat on his skull in grey and black. “Asked if I could look in on you and I was actually heading over when I decided to get something to eat.”

“Hello, Fred,” Hermione smiled at him. “We’ll be going to sleep soon.”

“Right, jet lag. So,” he leaned forward. “Got anything on our missing friend?”

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Well, you two are worried about Tony and staying at his place. Ergo, you’re looking for him, too. Have you come up with anything?”

Harry looked at Hermione. Other than Mac and Palmer, only they and Ron had any idea what was going on. Did they let Fred in on this at all?

“Well, we don’t really think it a good idea to give too much information,” Hermione demurred. “What we would like to know is who was the last person to interact with him before he went missing.”

“I knew something was off about that undercover story,” he groused. “No one would give me information about it, meaning they didn’t know either, and I’m one of the ones who know when Tony’s been out. Is there some connection to what’s going on with those poor Aurors?”

“Palmer said Tony’s been to the Ministry,” Harry offered. “He didn’t know why.”

“We were in Tony’s office this morning,” Hermione added. “He has files on Aurors Potter and Black. Do you know why he would have those?”

“Fred looked thoughtful. “This may not be related, but I do remember that he had gone to the Ministry to follow up on this other case from a few years back that someone had handed off to him. He came back looking shaken, but didn’t say what happened, only that things were starting to make a whole lot of sense.”

“How long ago did this happen?”

“Toward the middle of September. That must’ve been when he asked for those files. Going back to Tony’s disappearance, do you know if he was in Britain or America? It might be important to know what country he was in when he vanished.”

“We don’t,” she shook her head. “We were hoping that Palmer could figure out what happened before he disappeared.”

“Like what he was doing, who saw him last, that kind of thing? I’ve got a little more access than Palmer, so I can look up leads while he’s busy.”

“Fred,” Harry frowned. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“Too right I won’t,” he scowled. “I want Tony found and home, not locked up while the Killer goes free. You both have my word of silence or my name isn’t Fred Stevens!”

“I thought that _wasn’t_ your real name.”

“I just mean I’m not me if I blab to anyone. You can ask around, I don’t go back on my word. I’ll help Palmer on his end.”

“We’re surrounded by Aurors back home,” Harry huffed. “We’ll ask someone we trust to look into things if we can.”

“And with you two on the case, Tony’s as good as found!”

** *


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is done. The sequel to this, Hermione's Day Out, is also done. I'm working on some Revelations and the Weasley wedding.

Harry wished he had Fred’s confidence in them.

He yawned as he waited for the tea to steep as he looked around the kitchen in the morning.

There was a breakfast nook to the left of the door as soon as you walked in, a small island with barstools, a large counter and appliances that looked like they belonged in a professional cook’s kitchen, not an American Agent’s.

Having gotten up an hour ago, Harry noted the time change between Britain and America as the sun – which should have been up – was just starting to appear as another day began.

‘How did Tony do this?’ he shook his head in amazement, unable to see himself doing business all over the world – and in different time zones – without feeling like he was about to go mental.

He poured some of Tony’s cereal into a bowl and added milk while waiting for Hermione to get up. Taking a seat at the little island, Harry sighed as he picked up his spoon. He knew that Hermione was just down the hall, but it still felt empty as he listened to the silence. Now more than ever, he missed Tony and Ron, even though he would be seeing his best friend in a handful of days. Staring out at the living room, Harry imagined hearing talking and laughing as Tony, Ron, Mac, Palmer and Hermione lounged around the room. Eventually, one of them would wander over to chat or get a snack or drink while Tony had something cooking.

A knock on the door had him jolting out of his daydream, almost falling off the stool. He was standing in front of the door about to open it, when he paused. There were only six others that knew they were there: Ron, the ghost twins, Palmer, Susie and Not Fred. He stood very still as he heard another knock.

“Maybe they’re still asleep, Palmer. I would be.”

“That doesn’t surprise me at all. You know, Dr. Mallard says –”

“Fred, Palmer?” Harry opened the door to see them waving back.

“Just checking on you,” Fred shrugged. “To see if you’re still alive.”

Harry let them in and closed the door. “Should you two be here?”

“We had a job yesterday,” Palmer told him. “I can come in an hour late.”

“I’m usually late, anyway.”

“That’s not good work ethic,” Palmer scolded, glaring at the other man’s shrug. Harry had to smile at the apparently oft-argued point.

“Hey – ”

“Harry?”

They turned to see Hermione looking between them all.

“Morning, Hermione,” Fred waved. “We’re visiting. Nice pajamas.”

She blinked before glancing down at herself and squeaking as she realized that she didn’t have her robe on. She scurried back to the guestroom to get it.

“We wanted to let you know that we’ll start asking around today,” Fred turned back to Harry. “We’ll let you know what we find tonight.”

Hermione rejoined them a few minutes later and Fred dragged Palmer out not long after.

“We’ll go through the master suite last,” Hermione announced. “I’ll take the guestroom and you should start in the small loo.”

They passed the afternoon exploring every inch of Tony’s flat until they were left with the living room and master suite.

Harry was trying to stay positive, but it was starting to look like a lost cause. Palmer had said that he had an idea of what they were looking for, but had yet to elaborate. Harry figured that they had to exhaust all options before Palmer decided to say something, but they _were_ instructed to look for Tony’s gold star, so it could be anything.

**

Around dinnertime, Palmer slowed up with sandwiches to hear the latest.

“… and, quite honestly,” Hermione huffed a sigh, “I’m not sure what else to do.”

“We’re just going to have to keep looking,” Palmer told her.

“What is the gold star, anyway?” Harry frowned. “You never told us.”

“Tony changes its appearance several times a year,” the ME explained. “I don’t know what it looks like now or even if he bothered to change it before he disappeared. I honestly don’t have the first idea where he stashes it, anyway.”

“But it has a gold star.”

“Yes, he said that was the only way he could ever find it and not mistake it for something else.”

It was a good idea, yeah. Harry wouldn’t have been able to keep things straight himself without a few hints.

“Well,” Hermione leaned back in her chair. “We go back on Saturday, so we’ll have a little bit tonight, tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Palmer remembered. “Agent Donners wanted to speak to the two of you tomorrow. I expect it’ll take a few hours.”

“What does he want to talk to us about?” Harry frowned, exchanging worried looks with Hermione.

“I don’t know. That’s between you three,” he shrugged. “I’ll drop you off and Fred’ll bring you back or something. I’m thinking we leave around lunch so that will give you plenty of time to get ready.”

Hermione nodded. “Alright, but you’ll be able to help us start the search in the living room? All we have left is this room and Tony’s.”

“I’ll do what I can, yeah. Right now, though, I have to get going. I told some of the others that I would go with them to this Mexican place.”

Once the American left, Harry tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling.

They had to meet with Donners at MNP HQ tomorrow, clear the living room before the master suite and find Tony’s clue by Saturday.

Harry was trying _very_ hard to stay positive, but it was very difficult.

* *


	42. Chapter 42

The next morning, Harry and Hermione set off for the Cup o’ Joe for breakfast.

Once settled in a booth, they immediately checked the menu and was ready when Susie came by for their orders.

“We’ll find it somewhere,” Hermione rubbed her hands together anxiously after Susie left.

“Of course,” Harry agreed. He settled back against the booth and frowned as he rubbed his stomach. He’d started feeling odd last night. He would have thought it was something he ate, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Hermione had eaten the same as him and hadn’t seemed affected in the slightest.

“Harry?” brown eyes glanced around, before coming back to him. “When we find Tony, what will happen?”

It was something Harry tried not to think about, because he didn’t want to get his hopes up. But, he did know that he would be relieved to find him well. Even this, however, was a best case scenario, because Tony might not be –

“If we clear his name, we should be fine,” Harry wrenched his thoughts away from the Worst Case Scenario.

“Yes, but in order to do _that_ , we need to actually find MK and get proof that he did what Tony’s being suspected of doing,” Hermione pointed out. “But even _if_ we accomplish all this, and we all make it through the year, what about the future? Harry, you, Ron and I all know that this separation is affecting us more than it would other friends. And we all know _why_. We are going to eventually need to part ways with Tony and others will be suspicious if we keep trying to keep in contact with him. When we go into the Aurors, we won’t have a reason to contact Tony.”

“Hermione, let’s focus right now on finding him first,” Harry sighed. “Just for right now.”

“No, you’re right. No sense in worrying about the future like that just yet,” she breathed deeply.

Distraction came in the form of breakfast and they quickly ate before returning to Tony’s flat.

“I’ll use the shower first,” Hermione sighed, pulling off her shoes.

“Alright,” Harry nodded. “I’m going to see if I can get onto the roof.”

He closed the door behind him and, making sure his radio was still in his pocket, headed for the stairs to go up.

Coming to the roof-top door, he gave an experimental push and smiled slightly as it gave. Slowly opening it, the first thing he saw was buildings in the distance. Harry let the door close behind him as he looked around the sizable roof.

Almost immediately in front of him, a few tables and chairs were scattered all over the place. Harry wandered over to sit in one, tipping his head back and closing his eyes in the sun.

If he pretended hard enough, he could imagine being back at Hogwarts and relaxing on a bench outside. Ron and Hermione would be close by, preoccupied with their own activities.

Or – better yet – they could be looking into Adrienne’s diary, him enjoying a moment of sun while the other two discussed possible ideas. Agent would be next to them, sleeping in his own patch of sun. This was a daydream, of course, so he imagined Tony ambling toward them with the connection that was between all the MK victims.

The daydream went on a little bit to include what he thought would happen during the wedding this summer and he was absorbed with the idea of finally putting the old argument of Seeker Tony v. Harry to the test before he became aware of the sounds of a pencil on paper.

Something must have shown on his face – or he made a movement or something -, because the sounds stopped.

“I’m sorry about disturbing you,” Harry blinked his eyes open to see a young man maybe older than the twins watching him with sheepish black eyes. “I didn’t mean to wake you, but I needed to stretch my legs, so I came up here and I couldn’t resist when I just saw you sitting there,” he held up a sketchpad. “I hope you don’t mind, but my regular model, Sadie, hasn’t been feeling good for the last couple days and my regular back-up has evidently disappeared off the face of the planet, so only his superiors have any idea when he’ll be back. Plus, Tony would collapse in chairs just like that and – ”

“You know Tony?” he had to interrupt.

“Oh, yeah, I do,” he smiled brightly. “I’m Louie from the second floor and Tony would always say hello when I pass him in the lobby. Are you another friend?”

“Yeah, Harry,” Louie came forward to shake hands. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too, Harry,” he dragged a chair closer to sit. “Are you visiting from Britain or somewhere else?”

“Britain. Me and my friend were able to stop by for a week before we go back home to stay with another friend. We go back to school after that and we hadn’t heard from Tony for a while. He told us that we could stay at his place any time we were in town, so…”

“You found Tony off on another case and now you feel even worse for not knowing about it,” Louie nodded. “I wish I knew that he would’ve gone so I could have wished him luck on his case. Gosh,” Louie scrubbed a hand through his short brown hair. “It couldn’t have been that long from when I saw him on the last Friday before he left.”

“You did?” Harry blinked. Louie saw Tony before he disappeared?

“Yeah, it looked like he was ready to go jogging before bed,” he recalled. “I would see him in the park down the street on some afternoons when he could get away from the office. And it looked like he also needed the time to think, because he had that look on his face that usually came up when something was bothering him.”

‘The park?’ If Tony had been in the park before he disappeared, maybe…

It would be beneficial if Harry and Hermione could explore the park, as well.

Louie smiled slightly at his sketch pad. “I didn’t see him the week after that because I had been hit with such a painting craze that it was about a week before I started noticing anything outside my apartment. That was when I found out that Tony had gone undercover. Well, from what his friend Palmer told me when he wandered by to get Tony’s mail.”

The Trio had found Sirius on Saturday afternoon. Louie had last seen Tony on Friday evening. Whatever happened to Tony must have happened between Louie seeing him leave for the park and the Trio finding Sirius in Hogsmeade. Maybe Sirius had run across Tony in the park, then, as a check-in of sorts. Didn’t Kingsley or Dumbledore say that the field assignment that Sirius was on had a contact? Maybe that was Tony.

On the other hand, Tony may have been on his way to meet Sirius when one or the other was attacked. It could very well have been an attack on Tony by someone from his past as an Agent at either the MNP or NCIS. Sirius then came to the rescue – only to get beat up, too. Tony sent his mobile with Sirius to get him to safety, binding his magic to keep him from accidentally changing back. Where did Tony go from there? And to make things even more interesting, Carlin’s cousin recognized Sirius, who recognized him in turn.

So, Michel had to have been there, as well. As an attacker? Or the one who ordered the attack on Tony? Was there more than one attacker?

All Harry knew at this point was that Louie had last seen Tony the evening of his disappearance and that Michel had some involvement in it. Sirius ran across Tony, who was being attacked at that point, and jumped in to help. Tony got Sirius out of there, but not before Michel had gotten a good look at the Animagus in dog form. Tony then went off on his own – or got caught – and Sirius had then hid the mobile until it was safe to retrieve it.

What happened to Tony after that? And where was he now?

Harry blinked to find Louie sketching him again and sheepishly apologized.

“Don’t worry about it,” he grinned. “I get lost in my head, too. Do you think Tony’s doing okay?” he sobered.

“I’m sure he’s on his way to getting back as we speak,” Harry assured, hoping against hope that he was convincing.

“I hope you’re right,” he sighed. “I’m one of a number, I bet, who’s worried sick about Tony. It’s just… He’s done so much for me, you know? I would just _hate_ to have something bad happen to him. I’m not sure that I would take it well,” he stared down at the sketch he was working on. Sighing after a moment, he smiled a little sadly at Harry. “I really don’t know where I’d be without Tony. He had to be the only one I could count on during a rough time some years ago. He made me go out and watch all these movies and visit all those places… He just makes it better somehow.”

“Yeah,” Harry knew the feeling. Fourth Year was starkly brought to mind. Having Hermione was great, but Tony just brought something else to the group and they were all the better for it.

Harry let the artist draw him for a few more moments before he looked at the time.

“I’ll get going, too,” Louie packed up. “It was nice meeting you, Harry,” they shook hands again. “I hope to see you again sometime."

“Me, too,” he agreed. He stayed another minute to look around the roof again, after Louie left, before he took out his radio. “Hermione, I met one of Tony’s neighbors and he said that Tony was in the park before he disappeared.”

 _“That’s a great idea_ ,” she answered back, but her tone was odd. _“We’ll have to go sometime tonight or tomorrow. But, I think I found something, too.”_

“I’m on my way,” he tucked the radio back in his pocket and took off for the stairs. Once  back inside the flat, he absently took his shoes off as he looked around.

“Hermione?” he called.

“In the loo,” she called back.

Not having any idea what her find entailed, he slowly made his way to the loo that she was using and knocked on the door. “What is it?”

Hermione opened the door and let him in. “See for yourself.”

As soon as he glanced around, he saw it.

The steam from her shower had fogged the mirror. And written in Tony’s familiar handwriting on that mirror had to be the next clue:

_‘They come at night through empty portals,_

_ready to whisk you off._

_Try to tell a grown up, they’ll just laugh and scoff._

_But you know better, don’t you, the fears that ground you still,_

_it’s so tempting to just pick a prey to kill._

_But it’s so very hard to pluck your courage up to try._

_Every time you start, you just want to sit and cry._

_But if you have the courage and this path is one you chose,_

_for only you and you alone, I open at the close.’_

** *


	43. Chapter 43

Harry vaguely remembered snatches of getting ready, but only a little.

By the time Palmer had come to pick them up, they were both still a little out of it.

“Palmer,” Fred scowled at him when the three finally showed up in the lobby. “What in Merlin’s name did you do to them?”

“Why is it always me?” he frowned back. “They were already like this when I got them.”

Hermione shook herself out of it first. “I think we were just a little nervous to be meeting with Agent Donners.”

Fred took one look at Harry and snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Not him, anyway.”

“Hermione, are you sure you two are okay?” Palmer fussed. “I need to get going before Dr. Mallard – ”

“Goes ‘quackers’ in your absence?” Fred joked. “All alone in that big, empty morgue all by himself?”

“Don’t you get tired of making those jokes?” the ME Assistant huffed a sigh.

“Heck, no,” he grinned. “Mallard makes his own jokes, too, you know.”

“Well, I am,” he shook his head. “See you later.”

Fred led them toward the elevators. “He’ll come back to get you.”

“We know,” Hermione nodded, anxiously smoothing her skirt.

Harry felt the fog of shock recede, only for the butterflies of nerves to take their places. What could Donners want? He had no idea what Hermione might have said to Palmer to get them here, so he didn’t know what to expect. Harry filed the next clue into a corner of his mind as he looked at his surroundings.

It was much like their previous jaunt through the lobby, but with more people going in and out. They stood in line for the lifts and Harry was just admiring the high flying paper planes performing impressive maneuvers above when Fred stuffed a ball cap on his head.

“You don’t need to advertise your identity,” he commented, returning his hand to his pocket.

“Thanks,” he adjusted the cap so that his scar was covered. They really didn’t need word of this visit getting back to someone at school who would tell a teacher. Or the _Prophet_ , for that matter.

A few minutes later, they were part of the next group to enter the lift and Harry noticed a group of planes inching toward them and pointed them out to Fred.

“They do that,” he shrugged. “Tony used to joke that they were social flyers that got depressed when no one paid them attention.”

“What do you mean, ‘used to’?” Hermione asked. “He doesn’t joke about it anymore?”

“Well, about two years after he started NCIS,” Fred told them, “we found out that he was actually on to something. Long story short, we don’t joke about it anymore. Maybe he’ll tell you one day.”

They entered the lift and Harry blinked as he expected a different inside than what he got. “What happened to the other one?”

“That was on weekends,” Fred leaned against a corner. A rail lined the inside at waist height. “Come on. Grab a hold.”

Hermione stepped in first. Harry waited until she was settled before finding a spot between her and Fred.

“Hold on,” Fred advised. “It’s not quite like at the Ministry, but you’ll still want to hold the rail.”

Harry grabbed on just as the lift doors closed. The whole car shifted noticeably to the right before going down at almost an alarming rate.

“It helps if you focus on something,” Fred added. “See the paper planes?”

Harry wasn’t even aware of closing his eyes, but he opened them to see all the flyers gathered in front of him. “Er, hello?” he blinked, taken aback.

“They like your accents,” he grinned. “Well, go on. Say something.”

Hermione glanced between one and the other. “Um, hello,” she addressed the planes. To her surprise, they all turned scarlet. “It’s nice to meet all of you,” she smiled widely. “Right, Harry?”

“Yeah, of course,” he nodded. “Brilliant moves back there,” he gushed. “I wonder how it would look if a bunch of wizards did that on brooms. I’m a Seeker, you know. I play Quidditch for my House Team.”

They were amused when the flyers changed colors and started _playing_ Quidditch.

The blue team was up three points by the time they were let out on a familiar floor and they waved goodbye to the planes before Fred herded them to Donners’ office.

As soon as he left them, Hermione turned to him. “I’ll do the talking,” she told her friend. “Just, try not to look like it’s news, okay?”

“No promises,” he swallowed nervously as the door opened and they were ushered in by a rather pushy coat rack.

“Sorry about that,” Agent Donners was behind his desk and rubbing his eyes. “We’re still trying to figure out where the thing came from. Robbery confiscated it and it’s not registered. We also can’t figure out how to get it to stop opening the doors and letting people in.”

“It can do that?” Harry blinked.

“Evidently. There’s a charm on it that makes doors open when it’s near,” he threw a glare at the coat rack as it resettled into a corner. “Now, I’m sure you’re both wondering why I’ve asked you here today.”

“Yes, sir,” Harry nodded, feeling panic trying to slip out of his control.

Donners rifled through the papers on his desk. “I was hoping that Weasley was with you, but you can take it to him and send it back. Long as it’s done, either way.”

“… sir?” Hermione’s brows furrowed. Harry wasn’t sure, either.

“The paperwork,” he glanced up. “Every Liaison and his or her SOs have to complete paperwork after they get married.”

“That’s why – paperwork?” she faintly repeated.

“Yes, why?” he leveled an amused look at her. “Were you expecting something else? Now, to start with, you are both minors still months from your majorities. Mr. Weasley is not, so his stack will be significantly shorter. I’ll get that together and I would recommend filling it out away from those not read in. Whether it is done at school or not is up to you, but I ask no more than two weeks before sending it back.” He surfaced with two huge stacks of papers that he gave to them. “Mostly, it just wants your name, but there are other bits of information that we’ll need.”

“Agent Donners,” Hermione didn’t look at all phased by the work. “I thought that us three, Ron and Tony were the only ones to know about this.”

“We are,” he nodded, “but what many don’t know is that there are sealed files only able to be viewed by those permitted by the one who sealed them. DiNozzo and myself are the only two sealing these files. Should anything take us both out of the picture, that power will be given to the three of you and whoever you choose as second. As long as these are in the correct departments, no questions are asked. Besides, most think it’ll be because Tony is one of the best undercover Agents both MNP and NCIS has. And that includes the Morphomagus Agents. So. I’ll get Weasley’s papers together while you work.”

He left ten minutes later to do that and the two just looked at each other.

“That went better than I thought,” Hermione breathed in relief.

“What were you going to tell him?” Harry wanted to know.

“That we missed Tony and wanted to be near his things.”

“Would he have bought it?” Harry wouldn’t have, but that was him.

“I said something to that effect that Palmer passed along. He might have made it sound, I don’t know, professional.”

They looked at each other before bursting out in laughter at their circumstances.

“Alright,” Harry shook his head. “I guess we should get started.”

Donners was right that most of the time they needed to sign their names, but information was needed, too. One such question required Harry to press his hand hard against the space of empty parchment provided.

“Oh, it’s taking your prints,” Hermione watched him lift his hand to reveal an imprint of his hand, right down to the lines. She did the same a few pages later.

They even had to do a footprint with a shoe both on and off.

Since they were not American, they had to answer a lot of questions concerning their nationality. Hermione told him what to answer.

Wands described, House, Quidditch Player? Position?, favorite class, favorite teacher (past or current), favorite food, candy, best friends – up to three, etc.

There was a question about how many Quidditch World Cups they went to, what countries were involved in the Game, how long they’d known Tony (they put down that they’d known him since they were eleven in keeping with their story), they had fun making up a story about how they met Tony and hoped they wrote it well.

Eventually, they came to the last two pages.

“How long have we been here?” Harry rubbed his eyes.

“I don’t know,” Hermione shook her hand out. While this paperwork had been kind of fun to fill out, it still kind of hurt to write so much. “At least there’s only two pages left.”

Harry looked down to see instructions telling him to swipe his left fingertips on the inside of an arrow outline. He did so and yelped as he felt a prick draw blood on his finger. A few drops of blood fell onto the paper and were promptly absorbed.

Hermione followed suit and the same thing happened to her. A pair of plasters, one hot pink and the other a green that reminded Harry of Tony’s eyes, came out of nowhere to wrap around the injured fingers.

A few minutes later, writing appeared on the paper.

“Huh,” Hermione studied the two in turn. It listed things that Harry didn’t know could be found through a few drops of blood.

Their parents, three types of blood, date of birth, even where they were born, their body temperatures at that moment, eye and hair color… and at the very bottom, it listed any relatives that were in the Aurors of Britain or the American Wizarding Agency at that very moment.

“Why do we have Sirius’ relatives here?” Harry pointed out to Hermione.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to ask him. But look. Tony’s got a cousin in New York,” she pointed to a name.

Peter Burke had a small picture next to his name, though it was mostly a black and white pencil drawing. He looked like he was a good person and he had a nice smile. It listed his current assignment (Muggle Division, FBI, White Collar) and a little bit of his school years.

“He was in Tony’s House, too,” Hermione noted.

“What do you suppose this symbol means?” Harry pointed to what looked like a random squiggly line. Then he touched it and it formed into a cloud.

Hermione shrugged, though Harry might have started to have an idea once the cloud started raining.

The last page just said: “Quick Notes Quills?” Harry frowned.

They started violently when a slot opened up on the surface of the desk and two such quills flew out to float in front of them. They used the end of their tails to give them a small card.

Hermione tilted her head. “‘State your name’. My name is Hermione Granger and I am sixteen years old. This – it looks like – pink and brown Quill shall be named… um, Barbara until otherwise noted.”

The Quill’s new name appeared on the band in dark blue.

Harry did the same and named his Roger. The Quills bowed and one stuffed itself in Hermione’s hair as the other dove into Harry’s pocket.

“All done?” Donners poked his head into the office as the papers suddenly disappeared. “Good,” he re-took his seat. “Now that that’s out of the way and you have your Quills, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the MNP family.”

“Why do we need Quills?” Hermione tugged the tuft of pink sticking out of her hair.

“Well, it’s something that is enacted when prospective recruits are finished with the registration process. Since I would imagine the three of you will be going into the Aurors, take this as a desk-warming present in advance.”

“That went well,” Hermione breathed in relief as they wandered the corridor a few minutes after being all but thrown out of the office. “Now that it’s dark, we could either go to the park where no one is out but ourselves or we could finish the flat.”

“We’ll need to get something to eat, first,” Harry pointed out. “I’m not sure if I want to eat at the Cup again.”

“I think you’re right. Palmer will be a little late picking us up. Maybe he will have something in mind.”

They wandered into a quiet room just to see what was in it and found five witches in front of five doors.

“Hello,” Harry waved when one looked up.

“Good afternoon,” she smiled. “Did you need something?”

“We were just looking around until our escort comes to get us,” Hermione explained.

“Are you new recruits?” another eyed them. “You look kind of young.”

“Oh, we might be,” she told her. “Someone told us that we should look into being Liaisons and we got some information about being one.”

“I thought Liaisons had to be American,” the first mused.

“Someone’s been thinking of making a program,” Harry shrugged. “I think it’s something they’re looking into.”

“That would be nice,” the third sighed. “We need a program of international Liaisons. You wouldn’t believe some of the misunderstandings that’ve been resolved over the years.”

“Do the Aurors have a similar program?” the fifth wanted to know.

“I’m sure they have something like that, yes,” Hermione nodded. “There’s just so many.”

“Got that right,” the fourth snorted. “I don’t even know all the programs here in this office, never mind another!”

Harry glanced at the pictures on each of the five doors behind the witches and knew by Hermione’s slight gasp that she saw the fourth picture at the same time as he did.

Michel smirked at them from the door in a rather smug way, as if he knew something was going on and he was at the middle of it.

“Oh, you know Mr. Aniston?” the second girl wanted to know. “He’s been out a lot over the course of the past year.”

“Normally, we don’t really mind that, but Aniston’s had it in for DiNozzo and we like Tony more than Aniston,” the fourth sniffed.

“Yeah, Tony is really sweet,” the fifth gushed. “He remembers our birthdays and our anniversaries and it doesn’t matter if we’re all taken when he flirts with us. It makes our days when he comes around for some gossip.”

“Normally we don’t share gossip with just any Agent,” the first explained. “But Tony thrives on information and we make sure to get only the best. He’s especially interested in anything we have on unusual trips by any of the superiors,” she waved at the doors around them.

“It’s just a shame that he’s undercover,” the third sighed. “We have some good stuff for him.”

“When did you find out he was undercover?” Hermione asked curiously.

“Oh, Aniston told us,” the first shrugged. “It was a Friday, I remember, because my niece wanted to visit.”

“I remember thinking it was odd,” the fifth added. “Tony had been in earlier and hadn’t said anything to us about it.”

“Yeah, he usually drops hints,” the second nodded. “He didn’t say a word.”

That was news to the friends.

“And you saw him Friday morning or afternoon?” Harry asked.

“It was when he left for the Muggle office,” the first recalled. “Then it was before sundown.”

From what Louie told him, Tony was going to the park for a run that Friday night. Now Harry learns from five reliable sources that Tony was never intending to go undercover? The park seemed to be the last place anyone saw Tony or knew he was going. Was he attacked in the park? It was looking more and more likely.

Aniston had told the witches that Tony was undercover.

“When did Mr. Aniston tell you he was undercover? Tony, I mean,” Hermione wanted to know.

“About, let’s see… I was working late, so… It was before midnight when he came back in,” the second mused. “He was acting strange, too, like he had something to hide. Well, okay, it’s not strange behavior per se, because he’d been acting all secretive since last year, but… I don’t know. It just seemed odd to me.”

“And what information do you have to give Tony?” Hermione asked. “We know something about him, so, we may be able to get something to him in the future.”

“Oh, is he undercover at your school, then?” the fourth lit up. “And he sent you to get the information?”

“Well, not _at_ our school,” Hermione hedged. “But we did get some information from him recently. We don’t know when we’ll be speaking with him again, though.”

“Oh, of course,” the fifth rifled through her desk drawers and produced an envelope. “This is the stuff he told us he wanted on his last visit. I think – but I can’t be sure, so it’s all speculation at this point – that he was investigating one of these five. Call it women’s intuition.”

“She’s rarely wrong,” the third nodded, the others agreeing.

“Thank you,” Hermione stowed it in her pocket. “We’ll make sure he gets it.”

Palmer found them a few minutes later and took them to a different place for dinner. They had to take it with them because he had to go back, but that was more than fine with them.

“Alright,” Hermione took the envelope out of her pocket and laid it on the table. “So, where are we going to look now?”

“The park,” Harry spoke up before explaining what Louie had told him earlier. “Between Tony meeting the witches and Louie seeing him before he left for the park, I think that’s where we need to go next.”

“I agree,” she sighed. “So, you do think Michel has something to do with Tony’s disappearance. But what could Tony have possibly done to become a target? And what does Michel’s relationship with Carlin have anything to do with wanting you dead? I think that there is still a lot we don’t know.”

“And Tony’s star – whatever it is – must have one of the things we’re missing. But I still want to go look at the park. D’you think Louie would know where Tony jogged in the park?”

“I don’t know. We still have time to go after we finish eating,” she shrugged. “We could look through this information tomorrow. Maybe the park will turn up more clues.”

They dumped their trash and asked one of the neighbors where the park was before heading out.

Harry had found a pair of flashlights in the bathroom and they worked, so Harry brought them along.

“I can’t believe Tony could have been attacked just down the street from his home,” Hermione voiced the sobering thought.

“Think Tony had a routine?” Harry remembered how the fake Moody had told them that having a routine was dangerous. “Louie said something about running when there was a case on his mind.”

“Aniston probably followed him a few times,” she sighed, looking up at the stars. “I wonder if Tony knew. I also wonder what else he knew, probably about Aniston. Did Tony know about Carlin, too?”

It was frustrating when they had questions with no answers. Harry never liked it before Sixth Year and he would probably hate it even more _after_ Sixth Year. When they ever found Tony, Harry was never letting the man out of his sight again!

But what Hermione had said earlier made sense, too. How would they justify wanting to see Tony again? Maybe Ron would have some idea. His family, after all, worked at the Ministry.

The park, as it turned out, had several different trails.

“Now what do we do?” Hermione scowled.

“Start walking, I guess,” he shrugged.

They picked a direction.

“I wouldn’t know what to look for,” Hermione admitted as they made their way down the trail, wands in their pockets for emergencies.

“We might feel some of his magic,” Harry shook his head. “Or would we?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “Remember how it felt when we walked into the flat? We might pick up a trace of it.”

They wandered different trails for an hour before heading down one with the intent to go back. They moved their torches from one end of the trail to the other, encountering a scant handful of others on their own way home.

Hermione suddenly grabbed his arm a few minutes after meeting a trio of joggers. “Harry, look.”

He followed her gaze to where her torchlight ended up. “What?”

She pulled him off the trail and into the tree line, still following the torch light. “Don’t you see that bush?”

Harry did, as a matter of fact. It was a bush that seemed out of place, with still bare branches compared to the green just starting to grow around it.

“So?”

They got closer and Hermione made them stop a few feet from it. The sense of something wrong just got stronger.

“That is the aftermath of a curse,” she swallowed. “Something happened here.”

“The Killing Curse,” Harry fought down his panic. He was the only one to have ever gotten hit with it and lived to tell about it. If that curse was being thrown around…

“I’m kind of scared,” she admitted. “What are we going to find here?”

“We’re Gryffindors,” he reminded. “Whatever happens tonight and we do find… what we find, then we’ll have closure, right?”

She held onto his arm as they passed the Killed bush. There were marks on the trees that told of a non-fatal curse, but still one to hurt.

It had been so long since what happened there, that much of the evidence was probably already lost. But there was enough to see that someone had been throwing curses around… probably at someone else that they were chasing.

“At least Tony put up a fight,” Harry pointed out a mark on the opposite side of a tree as they went farther inside the woods. He was relieved at that.

“Aniston had to have been his attacker,” Hermione told him. “Where was Sirius during all this? He probably was chasing after them? Maybe Sirius was waiting for Tony?”

There was just something that didn’t make sense. It wasn’t something that Harry could put his finger on, but there was just that overwhelming feeling that they had pieces that didn’t fit together.

Eventually, they found themselves in a small clearing.

“So, Aniston chases Tony here after meeting him on the trail,” Hermione sighed. “Sirius may have been waiting and that’s when Tony must have bound his magic, because he didn’t want Sirius getting in the way.”

Harry could picture it:

Aniston racing after Tony, throwing curses at him. Tony tearing through the woods, trying to get away. Sirius was waiting in his dog form and Tony, recognizing him, bound his magic, but Aniston was too close behind him.

Sirius attacked Aniston, but Aniston was in a rage enough to start on the dog in his way. Tony tried to help Sirius, but Aniston was still throwing curses at him so Tony could only do so much.

Finally tiring of Sirius, Aniston gave chase to his real prey, who circled back and stuffed his mobile in Sirius’ mouth before using a spell blocking locator spells and sending him to Hogsmeade to try finding the Trio. Once safe, Sirius buried it and must have passed out from the pain. He dragged himself out of the trees and passed out again, where the Trio found him Merlin knows how many hours later.

But that left Tony, who had – at that point – been back in America, fighting Aniston.

Basically, this was the last known position Tony was at right up until Sirius had appeared on the outskirts of the Wizarding village.

Tony probably decided to put a non-locating spell on himself not long after sending Sirius off. The Italian Apparated to an unknown location and his trail went cold from there.

“I think we need Palmer out here,” Hermione swept her light around, sort of scared to shine it into the shadows in case it revealed something that she didn’t want revealed.

“You may be right,” he nodded, having decided to walk around some. Palmer was someone who knew about crime scenes. Maybe he had something to add or could come up with something about what happened next.

He swept his light around and was about to head back to Hermione when his eye caught something on the ground. “Hermione, tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“What?” she headed toward him as he fought panic. “What did you see?”

“That.”

She looked at what he was pointing at and sucked in a breath. “Harry,” her voice shook. “That’s Tony’s wand.”

** * **


	44. Chapter 44

“Okay,” Palmer scrubbed his hair. “So, I’m not arguing with what conclusions you’ve come up with because I can clearly see that someone – who may or may not be Aniston – was chasing someone that might be Tony. You’re right on that count. But, look, now that we know where Tony’s wand is, which is not in his hands right now, we can now definitely rule out him being a serial killer!”

It was Palmer’s lunch break, but Harry and Hermione were just too upset to eat anything. Or even to entertain the thought of eating.

It was Thursday and they went back Saturday. They didn’t have much time and the previous night’s discovery was just one more thing to look over. They still had yet to find the gold star that Tony had told them about and they needed to look over that information the witches gave them yesterday.

And he didn’t even want to think about the mirror mystery on top of everything else.

“That’s great, Palmer,” Hermione rubbed her temples. “But where’s Tony? We don’t know all that much about gathering clues from crime scenes and we don’t have much time left before we have to leave. We won’t be getting another chance any time soon.”

“I know,” he soothed. “That’s why I think I’ll need to get Mac out here to help me. We can figure out what happened and get the information to you.”

That was going to have to do. They already swept the area, but didn’t find anything else other than Tony’s wand.

“So, there is no doubt in your mind now that Tony isn’t a killer?” Harry scowled at him.

Palmer winced. “No doubt. And I’m sorry again. I mean, Tony’s good, but even he can’t kill anyone with wand-less magic. I don’t think. I mean, sure, he can move things around without a word and make them hover and fly - among other things -, but nothing _that_ complicated. He wouldn’t have it in him to even _say_ the words, let alone think it. He could probably perform any spell, hex, curse or jinx except that one.”

“I think we should run through it again,” Hermione suggested. “To make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Okay,” Palmer agreed. “But there won’t be anything until I bring Mac out and that won’t happen until we both get some space to breathe.”

A fourth run through didn’t yield anything they hadn’t already seen, so they went back to Tony’s place.

“But at least I got to it before anything else could happen to it,” Palmer attempted to cheer them up. He had put charms on the area of interest to keep the weather, people and animals from disturbing what was left. That was all they could do until the older witch and wizard could get back there in the future. Tony’s wand was safely stowed in Hermione’s pocket with her own and they would be bringing that back to Hogwarts with them because both Harry and Hermione would feel better if they had the wand in their possession.

“I guess we should eat something,” Hermione trudged up the stairs after saying goodbye to Palmer before the oldest of the three Apparated back to the Navy yard.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed.

They decided to stick with the cereal before they opened the envelope containing the information from the five witches.

And it was quite a bit of information.

“All of the superiors who share that office are in here,” Hermione flipped through the papers while on the sofa. “Each of them have quite an activity log, don’t they?”

Harry picked up the sheaf of papers concerning Michel and frowned. “It looks like he’s been doing a lot of business in Britain,” he noted, showing Hermione. “Of course, he could probably go other places without anyone knowing, but…”

“We’ll take that with us, too,” Hermione told him. “And leave the other ones here. I don’t honestly see anything tying the others to Aniston. It could be that it’s just he and Carlin.”

“Yeah,” he nodded.

Aniston had traveled to the Leaky Cauldron numerous times in the last year. He even had business at the Ministry, though that didn’t necessarily mean anything. He was an MNP superior, after all. It could have been legitimate.

“I don’t see anything here right now,” she shook her head. But there were things noted that neither could quite understand. “I don’t know what a number of these scribbles mean, though.”

“Ron probably knows,” Harry shrugged. “It’s got something to do with the Ministry, anyway.”

Hermione nodded. “There isn’t much else to do with it at the moment. Think we should keep looking for the gold star?”

“Yeah.”

** *

They worked the rest of the afternoon and had an early night.

Friday was their last day, so they made sure their things were ready to go the next morning.

They had stuffed Tony’s wand and the information deep inside Hermione’s bag with the disguised paperwork that Fred had given them when they had left the office on Wednesday.

They found nothing even remotely similar to a star all yesterday and it wasn’t for lack of trying.

And they still had no idea what the mirror was talking about, even though it seemed to be charmed to show the words in the steam after every shower.

They had gone over every inch of Tony’s flat, having paid special attention to the master suite, but there was nothing.

 _Nothing_.

Harry was lying on the floor and staring at the information on Aniston that just wasn’t making much sense to him. He recognized dates and times and some locations, but nothing else was ringing any sort of recognizable bell to him.

There were a lot of acronyms and he had no idea what half of them were. Not _even_ half.

He blinked at the ringing echoing throughout the flat.

“Harry, what’s that?” Hermione came from the spare room where she was making sure that she had everything.

“I don’t know,” he levered himself up off the floor as the ringing continued. She went to check the door, but reported no one there.

It didn’t matter, since the noise lasted another minute before cutting off and leaving an abrupt silence.

“What in Merlin’s name was that about?” she looked around. Nothing was out of place or anything.

“No idea,” Harry shrugged, heading in to the kitchen. He stopped when he spied a folded up piece of paper on the kitchen island that he knew hadn’t been there before. “Hey, do you think that whatever that ringing was tried to tell us that someone was sending a message?”

Hermione came in to see him standing next to the paper. “It’s possible,” she shrugged. “American Agents may all have a messaging system like that for all I know. Open it.”

He took the paper and opened it. “That ringing _was_ an alert system,” he smiled. “It’s from Palmer.”

Palmer told them that he was swamped with work, so he didn’t have a choice but to send a message through the system that Tony had set up. Palmer didn’t quite know how Tony sent messages from the flat, because he’d never told him, but he knew how from the office.

He just wanted to know if they wanted to go out for dinner their last night and to be ready for him around sundown.

“Let’s,” Hermione nodded. “I was just thinking that it was a shame that we haven’t been spending time with Palmer. He’s been helping us so much and we need to show him that we really do appreciate all he’s done for us in helping with trying to find Tony.”

Harry agreed.

**

By the time Palmer knocked on the door, the pair was dressed in their best Muggle clothes.

“You didn’t specify,” Hermione shrugged. “So, we just thought that it couldn’t hurt if we looked nice.”

“You’re right,” he nodded with a grin. “It doesn’t actually matter, but you both look really good.”

“Thanks,” Harry put his hands in his pockets.

“So, we’re walking?” Hermione asked a few minutes later, as they left the building.

“Well, not all the way there,” Palmer shrugged. “As you might be able to tell, the city is just one of many in America that has magic in its very foundations. The entire state of Louisiana – especially New Orleans – is so saturated in magic it’s almost surreal, but DC has its own brand of magic. Some of the Founders were actually Wizards and they certainly left their mark.” He led them back to the park, but they went left instead of right or straight as they had done before.

Harry was interested to note that they were heading for a rarely used trail that didn’t look like it saw much traffic. “Is this a magical entrance?”

“Of a sort, yeah. I didn’t see it until Tony dragged me out here one day during my first few months here.”

“Do you think it’s possible that this entrance was used the night Tony disappeared?” Hermione wanted to know.

“I don’t know. I can ask around next week,” Palmer shrugged. “And we can look more carefully, but I doubt it. If you really want to stay unnoticed, you Apparate.”

“What about if you’re too preoccupied with trying to find someone and you can’t?” Harry had to ask. They were going to try Apparating at school about a week after they returned. Only Ron would be able to take the test, though, but Harry and Hermione would be able to before Christmas later this year. What they’d been taught so far, though, was that if you were going to Apparate, you had to clear your mind.

Maybe Tony had Apparated without using his wand after sending Sirius off. Having used the same location blocking spell on him as he had on Sirius, Tony was able to escape Aniston. But Aniston, who now didn’t have any idea where Tony was, had been trying to find him because of what Tony may have done, so he’d been looking for Sirius in the hopes that Tony may have Apparated after him.

If that was the case and Aniston had started talking about something that Tony may or may not have done, then people who had more power would start looking for Tony. That must be why he hadn’t surfaced at the school for help. Even the teachers were having doubts about what they might know about him. Tony would have been reported in a heartbeat.

Aniston was closing the net around Tony and Sirius was probably the only one who knew where he might be.

The Trio needed to keep a careful eye on him when they reunited.

Palmer stopped them in front of a pair of trees growing closely together. “I heard it’s a little like stepping onto Platform 9 ¾ if you’re nervous.”

“Why don’t you go first?” Hermione smiled at him. “To show us how it’s done.”

“Alright.” He stood directly in front of the pair of trees before confidently walking toward them. Between one blink and the next, he was gone.

“Looks like he just started walking,” Hermione stood in his exact spot before walking in his footsteps. She was gone, too.

Harry followed and found himself in a dim interior.

“Hey, Palmer!” someone called across the room as Harry let his eyes adjust.

“Hi!” he called back, grabbing Harry by the arm and towing him toward the door before he could get a good look around. Hermione followed them down a small corridor and Palmer made them wait for a moment, as if something was about to happen and he didn’t want them to miss it.

“Reggie should be around here somewhere,” he muttered, looking around.

“Where are we?” Harry wanted to know.

“Buccaneer’s Cove,” he answered. “It’s like Diagon Alley, though this one’s smaller. If you really want to shop, you go down the street toward Liberty Square. That’s where all the excitement happens.”

Harry, though thrilled at getting the chance to explore some American Magical places, wasn’t quite sure what they were still doing there. “Weren’t we going to eat?”

“Yeah, I just wanted you to meet – Ah, Reggie, there you are.”

“Of course, here I am,” a voice seemed to echo around them. “Now, where are you?”

A mound of blue gunk sprouted from the middle of the floor and a pair of eyes blinked at them from in the midst of it.

Palmer knelt down beside the eyes and poked the stuff they were swimming around in. “I know you’re shy sometimes, but I wanted you to meet Harry and Hermione.”

“Ah, Tony’s young ones,” the echo was back. “But I was under the impression that there was a third.”

“He’s at home,” Harry told him. The voice was obviously a male and he sounded very nice.

“Well, be sure to bring him next time,” Reggie gurgled the echo. “Tony promised three and three I shall meet. And not a moment before.”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re a puddle,” Palmer shrugged. “Well, we should get going.”

“It was nice meeting you,” Hermione said politely.

“And you,” he blinked.

They left and Palmer grinned at them as they ended up outside a café. “Reggie’s been there probably since the beginning. He’s kind of shy so he’s usually a puddle, but he’s been known to slide down the wall, reflect in a mirror, and even show up as his usual self. Not a lot of ghosts are like that and he’s one of the friendliest I’ve ever met. Legend has it that he used to be a pirate or something and he fell in love with the Cove, so he decided to stay and live out his life there. I’m not sure if he had a shop or not, but he died somewhere inside the restaurant and he likes it there too much to leave.”

“Wicked,” Harry grinned.

“Yeah, it’s hilarious to hang out around Christmas and New Year’s,” Palmer grinned back. “Pour some eggnog on the floor and he’s yours forever.”

They walked a few more blocks and found themselves on the sidewalk of a busy street. Palmer pointed out their restaurant for the night, which was luckily on their side. They just needed to cross a few parking lots to get to the door, which had a few people waiting outside.

They got in line and Palmer pointed out a few places of interest that Tony dragged him to in order to be more exposed to Muggles. “I’ve never really had much experience, being a full-blooded one,” he shrugged.

“I didn’t know that,” Hermione blinked. “I always thought you seemed more like me.”

“Well, it’s helped over the years. Over here, though, we don’t really put as much stock in blood as other countries. Well, a lot of us don’t. Tony certainly doesn’t.”

Harry was just admiring the neon lights across the street when a squeal suddenly caught his attention.

“Palmer! Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?!”

The American went rigid as a tall woman, precariously balanced on rather tall shoes, teetered her way toward them.

“You aren’t starting to have psychic powers, are you? I didn’t even know we were going to be here,” she had a bubbly personality that matched her pigtails and a huge smile. “I was going to invite you, too, but you left before I could find you,” she grabbed him in a hug.

Hermione’s hand squeezed his wrist.

They had never seen this woman before, but they knew _exactly_ who she was.

Abby Scuito beamed at her co-worker before the pair caught her eye. “Hi,” she waved at them, before glancing back the way she came. “I’m Abby. Are you with Palmer?”

“Oh, um, yes,” Hermione’s smile seemed forced. “We’re spending our last week of spring break and we ran into Palmer here some time ago. He decided that we needed to get out of the hotel and explore, since we’ve been studying for our exams all week.”

Only three of them knew well that the pair had another week left and what they had really been up to.

“That’s awesome,” she grinned. “Hey, Palmer, do you and your friends want to eat with us? More the merrier, I always say.”

“I guess,” Palmer looked to Harry, who shrugged.

Sure. Let’s have dinner with the team that’s been sending Tony into a downward-spiral, shall we? It’ll be _loads_ of fun.

Four others made their way over not long after.

“Harry, Hermione,” Palmer smiled nervously at the obviously forced smile on Hermione’s face and the uneasy one on Harry’s. “Allow me to introduce Abby Scuito, Dr. Ducky Mallard, Ziva David, Tim McGee and Jethro Gibbs.”

“Hi,” Agent McGee smiled slightly as Ziva nodded at them curiously. Agent Gibbs seemed more interested in their surroundings than he was in them. Dr. Mallard simply smiled in a way that reminded Harry of Albus Dumbledore.

“Well, had I known Mr. Palmer would be meeting two for dinner, I wouldn’t have suggested this place,” the surprisingly English accent rolled across them.

“Are you British?” Hermione glanced at Harry. Tony never told them he had another British friend. Well, before he disappeared. It probably never came up in conversation since the Trio wanted to keep Tony’s mind off of work.

“As are you,” he smiled in surprise.

“I have never met more than one at a time,” Ziva’s accented English told of her own heritage, though Harry didn’t know what that heritage was.

“That’s probably a lie,” McGee huffed. “We’ll probably never know.”

Ziva just smiled in response, dark brown eyes sweeping over the youngest two. “Are you still in school?”

“Yeah,” Abby answered. “They have to go back to school next week. Spring break.”

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” Hermione corrected. “To stay with our best friend. His mum would be entirely disappointed if we didn’t.”

They soon found themselves following the waitress to a large booth near the back of the restaurant.

“I’ve never been here,” Abby commented, claiming the spot next to Hermione. “Only Ducky has, though. We aren’t sure about Gibbs.” The older man had disappeared to the loo as they walked to the booth.

Ziva took the Goth’s other side and Ducky was on her free side. That left Hermione’s other side where Harry was sitting, Palmer and Gibbs rounding them out.

Harry was just glad that two people he knew and trusted – though he trusted Hermione more than Palmer, he was sorry to say (they really should let him in a little more) – were between him and the others. Although, Gibbs and Ziva were sort of in his eye line and kind of made him torn between trying to set them on fire with his eyes – though he wasn’t sure if he actually would – and giving them a piece of his mind about their poor treatment of Tony. He had to remember that, as far as the team was concerned, they didn’t know each other – or Tony -, so Harry and Hermione had absolutely no reason to hate them.

Hermione’s grip on his wrist, which hadn’t relented at all since she’d grabbed him, tightened reflexively as she turned her attention to Abby.

“Does Palmer work with all of you, then?” Hermione asked, doing an admirable job at keep her emotions close to her.

“What’s he told you about us?” she asked in response.

“Not much. Only that his friend is out of the country and that we would have got along like a dream,” she said sweetly.

“Oh, Tony?” Abby tilted her head, a shadow of sadness crossing her hazel eyes. “I’m sure he would have liked meeting you,” she told them.

“How long is he going to be out of the country?” Harry asked.

“We don’t know,” McGee snorted. “Not like he told us he was even leaving to begin with.”

“I would think that it didn’t matter if one of my mates didn’t say that they were leaving the country,” Harry frowned. “As long as they’re alright away from home.”

“And what if this ‘mate’ of yours is supposed to be undercover?” Ziva narrowed her eyes. “And you had no knowledge of this undercover assignment, though you are part of his team?”

“I would be very proud of him,” Harry answered sincerely. “It was probably time sensitive and he couldn’t get the opportunity to give anyone any word of his leaving. Personally, if it were my teammate, I don’t think I would care if he left without a word. I trust him enough to make his own decisions and I would take the knowledge that he is out there with pride. He’s _my_ teammate and no-one else’s and he’s that good, to boot.”

“Well, we _are_ proud of him,” Abby noted thoughtfully. “But he was acting like he was on another assignment, even though we’re supposed to be the ones he goes to for support. He was acting like something was going on and we tried telling him that we’re available…”

“Maybe he didn’t want you to be,” Hermione frowned. “What makes you think that he wasn’t trying to protect you from something? You would be implicated with him should the assignment turn ugly.”

“But we’ve been through so much! I would gladly be implicated,” she declared.

“Maybe he was blackmailed into it,” Harry mused to Hermione.

“What could he be blackmailed _with_?” McGee wanted to know.

“Reassignment,” Harry flatly answered. Sadly, that was exactly the kind of blackmail that would make Tony do something he didn’t want to do.

Abby gasped as if that never occurred to her. “Oh my _gosh_ ,” she whined. “What if he was? And he never wanted to leave, so he keeps his mouth shut because one word to us and he’d never walk through the doors again! Now I feel awful for being mad at him for leaving us without a trace.”

“Well,” McGee looked thoughtful now. “He probably got blackmailed with _something_. Not necessarily reassignment…”

“Timmy, how could you say that? We’re important to him. I think it makes perfect sense that he doesn’t want to get reassigned.”

“Be that as it may,” Ziva frowned consideringly. “You said that he also might be trying to protect us from something.”

“Maybe that should be the other way around,” McGee shrugged.

“He does get side-tracked,” Abby had to agree. “And Gibbs wouldn’t need protecting from anything. He’s got connections.”

“Abigail, if I may,” Ducky finally spoke, eying Harry and Hermione speculatively. “Everyone – even Jethro – needs protecting from something, so, perhaps… It is not outside of the realm of possibility.”

Gibbs finally rejoined them before they ordered their drinks.

All in all, despite the majority of the company, it wasn’t such a bad meal.

Ducky recalled several places in the British Isles that held fond memories and Ziva told of some European adventures, though Harry was certain that half was made up to keep them from having nightmares. Harry was grudgingly grateful for that, since he didn’t need any more.

Every so often, though, Abby would mention Tony and she seemed genuinely concerned, as did Ducky, and that made her seem less unlikable to Harry. Ducky had been spoken of fondly by Tony, so Harry was inclined to like him anyway.

McGee, on the other hand, seemed like he was _happy_ Tony was away. Gibbs just acted like he was more inconvenienced by Tony’s absence more than anything else and Ziva seemed to be a mix of both.

Several times, Harry had to nudge Hermione when it looked like she was about to either bend the fork, throw something or ‘accidently’ set something on fire.

Thankfully, though, the evening had to draw to a close.

Before leaving, however, Ducky, Gibbs, Ziva and Hermione had to go to the loo, leaving Harry with Palmer and Abby.

“I mean,” Abby twirled her straw around her drink as she chased the last of her berries. “It’s not that I wasn’t hurt when Tony disappeared without a trace, because I really was. But now that you started me thinking about other options, I’m not as upset. He could be doing it for our own good, you know? So thank you for putting that into perspective, Harry. It’s just… I’d like a message or something. Not enough to put him in danger, but just something that would let me know where he is and how he’s doing. I would be a lot happier if there were people I actually, you know, trusted at his back.”

“Now tell us how you really feel,” Palmer deadpanned, flinching playfully as she tossed a single ice cube at him and missed.

“But no,” she grinned. “Tony’s like my big brother. He’s the one who takes me seriously, like… You know how when you’re a kid you’re just scared out of your mind at the empty closet that was left open at night? And you’re just _convinced_ there’s something in there, but no one takes you seriously? You can’t work up the courage to do something about it, so you get your big brother to slay the demons for you. I just want him to come home and fight the demons in my closet,” she sighed sadly.

“I’m sure those’ll be nothing compared to what he’s going through right now,” Palmer reached over to pat her hand.

“Yeah,” she smiled weakly. “I should probably be careful, though, right? Or he’ll probably end up moving in with me – or at least in my closet.”

** *

Harry and Hermione got back to the flat and unanimously decided that, for their last night, they were going to sleep on the floor in Tony’s room.

“Did you see McGee, Gibbs and Ziva’s reactions to Tony not being here?” she ranted, all but throwing the blankets to the floor as they readied to sleep on opposite sides of the bed. “I would believe Abby more than them! Not that she’s not off the hook, what with her spoiled behavior when Gibbs went off to Mexico.”

Harry just watched her as he sat on Tony’s bed.

He was kind of sad to be leaving Tony’s things. He sort of hoped he would be able to come back in the future. Hopefully, after they’d found Tony because Harry couldn’t be sure when they would be back without him. The Order was ridiculously meticulous about his safety, not that he wasn’t grateful because he was, but really.

Apparently, Hermione had run out of steam while he was in his thoughts and decided to sit on the bed next to him.

“My stomach feels off,” she sighed. “How do you feel?”

“I think I feel off, too,” he shook his head.

“Do you think Tony’s alright? I mean, I wasn’t paying much attention to it the last time, but now that we’ve got a taste of Tony’s magic, you don’t think we’re getting sick, do you?”

“I don’t know. But let’s not jump to conclusions,” Harry reassured. “It’s been two weeks since we’ve last seen Ron, so maybe some of that is because we’ll be seeing him tomorrow.”

“That’s a good point,” she smiled. “But do you think he’s been feeling off, too? Well, obviously because the both of us haven’t been near him, but… What if… the three of us are together and we still feel ill?”

Harry thought about it and shook his head thoughtfully. “I’ve been thinking something and Abby said something when you were in the loo that makes me wonder if it’s not a good idea. We’ve been assuming that Tony disappeared somewhere that we would never think to look, but what if he’s been hiding out at Hogsmeade or something and he’s been waiting for us to send a message to him?”

Hermione’s eyes widened as she looked at him. “That’s an idea! We need to go back to the place we found Sirius to make sure he didn’t leave any other notes. Then, we’ll need to leave our own message for him and we’ll make it so that only he can be able to read it! Well, besides the three of us. Oh, what if he knew that we found his mobile and he left another message for us, thinking that we would be back? Now I feel horrible, making him think we believe him to be a killer.”

“And the teachers and everyone have us under a close watch so we can’t meet each other,” Harry scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Poor Tony must think he’s got no one left.”

“Well, we’ll just have to prove him wrong,” Hermione decided. “I’m certainly not abandoning him.”

“Me or Ron either,” Harry frowned. They couldn’t do anything about Tony until they got back to school, so they decided to just go to bed. They would see Ron soon enough.

But an hour later, Harry was still awake, scowling at the ceiling.

He was just too restless to see Ron and tell him what they’d found out about Aniston and Tony and them finding Tony’s wand and meeting the team. Harry really wanted to know about what their information said about Aniston and he really wanted to go to Hogsmeade right now to leave a message for Tony.

On the other side of Tony’s bed, he could hear Hermione trying to settle, more than likely restless, too.

Harry let his head roll to the side and he spied the walk-in closet door ajar. He was fairly certain that what Abby had said about things in the closet was a metaphor, but a lot of things he had once thought of as fairytale before he got his Letter… wasn’t so much.

Heaving himself upright with a sigh, Harry closed the closet door before returning to his blankets to scowl at the ceiling.

He was just starting to get drowsy when his eyes fell on the closet door again.

“ _You know how when you’re a kid you’re just scared out of your mind at the empty closet that was left open at night?”_

**_They come at night through empty portals, ready to whisk you off._**

_“And you’re just_ convinced _there’s something in there, but no one takes you seriously?”_

**_Try to tell a grown-up, they’ll just laugh and scoff._**

_“You can’t work up the courage to do something about it, so you get your big brother to slay the demons for you…”_

**_… But if you have the courage, and this path is one you chose…_**

He turned toward the closet and let his eyes drift.

… **_For only you and you alone_** –

“‘I open at the close’,” he stared dumbly at the crack between the door and the ground before he was suddenly wide awake. “That’s it!”

“What! What’s it?” Hermione squawked, bolting upright. “Harry?"

“The mirror! I figured it out!” he scrambled up. “Look! ‘I open at the close’! That light wasn’t there before I closed the door!”

He scooped up his glasses as Hermione climbed on the bed to get a look at what he was talking about. “Good Merlin,” she sat back, shaking her head in wonder at the eerie light coming from the closet.

Harry grabbed the door handle and opened it just a crack. Just as he thought, the light went out almost immediately.

“There’s something in there,” Hermione followed him inside the closet. “I don’t see anything that could have made that light.” She closed the door behind them to see, their eyes dropping to the floor.

After a few minutes, out of the corner of his eye, Harry spied that same eerie greenish glow and realized it was coming from _above_ them.

“It’s coming from up there,” Hermione spoke.

He followed her gaze and started slightly as he found that same glow lighting up a patch directly in the middle of the ceiling. “I’ll be right back,” he opened the door and headed for the spare room where they’d found a stepping stool their first day. He brought it back with him and made sure to close the door after him. He set the stool directly under the glowing patch and stepped on it.

“Do you think there’s something up there?” Hermione asked from below.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he shrugged. He was still a few inches too short, but he gave a hop or two and smiled triumphantly when he managed to touch the patch.

Only to yelp as it caught him by the wrist and _yanked_ him up and off the stool.

“Bloody hell,” he rubbed his head from where he landed. “Definitely a Wizard’s flat,” he mumbled before moving so Hermione didn’t squash him like she did back in Third Year after the Whomping Willow Incident.

He looked around and was surprised to see where he ended up.

“Is this some sort of attic?” Hermione got up behind him as he moved forward.

“It has to be,” he shook his head, spying a steamer trunk almost identical to his in the corner of the space. Piles of books were crammed into a magical bookcase and sorted by title. Other books were in piles on the ground, among other odds and ends that they’d been looking for ever since they started looking for Tony’s gold star.

“Harry, there it is,” she pointed toward one pile in particular. “The gold star! It’s a _notebook_!”

So it was.

He moved over and grabbed the small, pocket-sized spiral notebook from its place on the floor. The gold star shimmered when he touched it. “It looks like it was handled relatively recently,” he noted. He flipped through it and knew that this was the something that they had been searching for. “Looks like Aniston has something to do with this, after all,” he pointed at Michel Aniston’s name scribbled in Tony’s familiar handwriting several times in the latter half of the book to Hermione as she came up beside him.

“We’ll go over it later,” she took it from him and looked in the back. “What do you suppose this is?” she pointed at a paragraph that seemed to be written in a language that looked like Italian, but he couldn’t be completely sure since it was hard to tell. It was almost as if Tony had written it so that he was the only one who could read it.

“Hm.”

They looked around the space a little more, before Hermione spied a yearbook with the Creswell name. She grabbed it and flipped through it. “They have clubs and everything, just like we do.” Looking back at where she got it, she saw a photo album not far from her.

Harry made his way over to the trunk as Hermione settled into a spot to flip through the pictures.

There was Tony and a girl wearing glasses, beaming at the camera.

A few pictures later, a second girl wearing a headband ended up next to them, waving up at Hermione.

Halfway through what she figured was Tony’s Third Year, another boy had joined the original three.

She flipped through where Seventh Year started and blinked as she found a blank picture two pages in. “How odd.” There were several more blank pictures scattered throughout Seventh Year and she couldn’t find any rhyme or reason as to their purpose. Maybe they didn’t come out right.

“Hermione.”

She glanced up at him and blinked at his pale face. “Harry? What is it?”

He wordlessly held out a very familiar drawstring pouch in response.

** * *


	45. Chapter 45

“Bloody Hell,” Ron stared at the bag full of tokens, the recovered wand and Tony’s radio that they’d found near the bag last night.

“To say the least,” Harry tried to keep himself from doing something stupid. Like actually going to someone else about this.

“No wonder why we couldn’t get him on the radios,” Hermione rubbed her already red eyes. “He wasn’t anywhere near his.”

“Do you still think he’s hiding in Hogsmeade somewhere?” Ron wanted to know.

“Where else could he be?” she shrugged helplessly. “We’re going to need to go back to where we found Sirius to be absolutely sure we didn’t miss anything else.”

“We can do that before everyone else gets there,” Ron lit up. “You two weren’t here when Dumbledore told Mum that we were going to get there by Floo and not train.”

“But how closely will they be watching us?” Harry pointed out.

“I don’t know yet. But there’ve been a few Order members here,” Ron shrugged. “It should be time for lunch about now.”

“I don’t know if I can eat,” Hermione looked miserable as she stared down at what they brought back with them.

“We’ll have to,” Harry told her. “If we’re going to be in any shape to help Tony, we need to eat.”

The friends went down the stairs of the Burrow.

Harry and Hermione had gotten in three hours ago, still keyed up over what they found. Neither had slept very well knowing that poor Tony was probably suffering without exposure to their magic. They spent the last hour and a half filling Ron in on their week with Vince and AJ – where they found out about Michel and Sirius knowing each other -, then they told him about what they learned at the MNP offices and the park by Tony’s flat, before rounding out their story with their discovery in Tony’s attic.

Ron had told them that he had something to add, but if they didn’t show up for lunch someone would get suspicious.

“You three left in a hurry,” Ginny noted when they appeared in the kitchen.

“Well, we had so much fun,” Hermione shrugged. “We wanted to tell Ron before we forgot most of it.”

“It _did_ sound like fun,” Ron nodded. “Half of it, anyway.”

Mrs. Weasley bustled around the kitchen, not wasting any time in fussing over them. She was constantly heaping seconds on their plates and pouring more tea into their cups.

They were finally let outside to wander the orchard and Ron took them as far from prying ears as he could.

“So, what did you want to add to everything?” Hermione crossed her arms.

“Alright, look,” Ron breathed deeply. “When we got back from France, Carlin’s been coming here a few times a week to hang out with Mum. That’s not suspicious by itself, but he’s only around when he knows Dad’s not.”

“Carlin likes her, then,” Harry shrugged. “They _were_ mates in school, right?”

“That’s the thing, though,” Ron grinned. “I overheard Mum talking about the MK victims and it turns out that they were all friends! The victims even wrote to Mum days before they died!”

Harry exchanged looks with Hermione. “But why would they end up dead?”

“I don’t know,” Ron scrunched his nose. “I read half of three letters before I quit. Mostly mushy, nostalgic stuff.”

“I guess they didn’t say anything in the letters,” Harry frowned thoughtfully. “As far as I can tell, it looks like the only connection is Mrs. Weasley.”

“But why target blokes who knew Mum back at school?” Ron tilted his head.

“I don’t know. Do you have anything else?”

“Yeah, actually, one,” he nodded. “The other day, Aniston came by. Mum knew him, too! Ginny asked how they knew each other and um said that Aniston and Carlin were cousins – which we knew already. Turns out, Michel had stayed with Carlin during Mum’s Fourth Year and they and other friends Mum had would visit at least once during every break they had. I don’t know what happened after that, but at least Mum still has friends left.”

“Okay,” Hermione tapped her fingers against her leg. “So, we have Aniston going after Tony at his neighborhood park. Sirius gets caught up in the attack and Tony sends him to us while he may have decided to follow Sirius to Hogsmeade and is there right now. Aniston wants Tony found, so he tells powerful people that Tony is suspected of being the Killer. Someone could be helping him frame Tony by making people think it’s Tony talking to the victims, who all knew Carlin, Aniston and Mrs. Weasley. Tony may have been investigating Aniston for something and whatever it was made Aniston nervous enough to go after Tony.

“Knowing Tony’s relationship to us, the teachers now have to watch us more carefully than they were before. On top of all that, Carlin is trying to kill Harry and _that doesn’t make sense!_ What could Harry possibly have to do with anything? Why were the victims targeted besides the connection to Mrs. Weasley? What does Tony know? I think we need to go over the notebook and the information on Aniston. There has to be something there that connects all of these factors.”

Harry and Ron nodded, but it was agreed to look through all of it a bit at a time. They had to be sociable in order to not draw suspicion. That was why they headed back to find Ginny a few minutes later.

But as Harry watched the girls trying to beat Ron – again – at chess, there was a niggling feeling that they had enough clues to start putting the pieces together.

He just couldn’t help wondering if the picture was starting to make sense.

He really didn’t think it did.

** *

The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday, the Trio couldn't get away to further their investigation. Partly because the Order members not on assignment were gathered about the house. One or two even reassured the Trio that Sirius was just fine.

"Oh, we're not worried," Hermione shrugged. "We know he's doing alright."

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "Call it a gut instinct."

During that weekend, the Trio had the strangest conversation with their Head of House yet.

The Trio had been doing some reading in the kitchen and drinking some tea when Professor McGonagall returned from outside where she had been doing some warding for the summer wedding.

“Good afternoon, Professor,” Hermione looked up with a smile. “Would you like some tea?”

“It wouldn’t be any trouble,” Ron told her.

“No, no,” she shook her head with a smile. “I really must be returning to the school.”

“Okay, then,” Harry smiled back before returning to his book.

“Mm, Potter…”

He looked back up to see his Head of House studying the three of them, looking like she wanted to say or do something, but was uncertain of how to go about doing it.

“Did you want something, Professor?” Hermione asked.

She looked around and noted the absence of anyone else before hesitantly taking a seat at the table. “I do not know Agent DiNozzo well, but…” she sighed. “I have reason to believe that it was wrong for us to blindside you like we did. You three in particular must understand that, as teachers, it is our duty to our students to make an environment as safe as possible. Though, I do recognize and regret our failures in the past - especially for you, Potter -, we try to evaluate and identify as many potential dangers as possible and react accordingly. Unfortunately, we – and myself, in particular – were under the impression that Agent DiNozzo was one of those dangers.”

“But he’s not,” Ron frowned, beating the others to the punch. “He’s not dangerous and he wouldn’t hurt any of the three of us even if his life depended on it!”

“Well, if his life depended on it,” Hermione had to add, “I think I could take him hurting us.”

Harry nodded. “But I’m sure he would appreciate the sentiment,” he patted the stricken redhead’s arm as he realized how that might be taken.

“It has recently come to my attention,” McGonagall continued with a small smile. “That Mr. Weasley is correct in believing that Tony is not at all a threat. To anyone. I, however, believe that I am alone on the staff regarding this matter. But, I do ask that you trust me in my belief that Tony is well hidden from those who want him found and that – should you… make contact… with him -, you send along word to myself when. I will ask no questions, but I would like to know exactly when you get a response in relation to when you left word for him.”

“And would you ask any questions if we should run out of sight for… perhaps a half hour?” Hermione tentatively questioned. “You are an Order member, after all…”

“I will do my best to ensure that you have enough time to formulate a message,” she nodded.

“So, you do want us to contact Tony?” Ron eyed her.

“My dear boy, what makes you think he hasn’t already?” she quirked a brow at him. “I am quite confident that, even if you fail to receive a response, our friend is in fact closer than you may believe. His… unique ability allows him to effortlessly blend into surroundings that he would normally be unable to.”

Not entirely sure what predicting the weather had to do with anything, Harry nodded vaguely. “He is good at undercover work, though we may not know much about it.”

“That he is, Mr. Potter. That he is. And I daresay you’ve already seen him at work,” she had a sparkle in her eyes that spoke of something only she knew. “But, should anyone ask, you have no reason to believe that he is anywhere near the school and you are worried sick because no one is telling you anything about him.”

“So he _is_ in Hogsmeade,” Hermione blurted.

“Perhaps,” she tilted her head. “I have no reason to believe he is there, either. Not to worry,” she stood, ready to leave. “Tony has a reason to boast being one of the best undercover operatives anyone has seen this side of the Muggle world. He has yet to be caught at it, after all.”

Caught at what?

What changed her mind about Tony? Had she made contact with him? When? While they were in America?

Before they could ask, McGonagall had gone.

“It’s brilliant on Tony’s part,” Ron shrugged. “Let us take care of one thing, then talk to McGonagall about something else. I wonder if he knows who’s been trying to kill Harry.”

“Maybe he told her his suspicions,” Harry mused. “Us solving his case is one layer, getting McGonagall involved may be another, and all of it may come together once Tony deems it safe enough to come out of hiding. That, though, depends on Carlin and Aniston.”

“I don’t know,” Hermione sighed. “I just have this really odd feeling that she was trying to tell us something.”

Harry just didn’t know. To be honest, he’d gotten that feeling, too.

“What unique ability do you think she was talking about?” Hermione asked.

“Dunno,” Ron ducked his head. “Harry?”

“I… I would have to ask Tony if I can tell,” he hedged. “But, I honestly don’t know what it would have to do with him going undercover or anything.”

** *

 


	46. Chapter 46

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that this story had collected enough dust to post it all up in its finished glory. If you can believe it.
> 
> I've been so busy writing out the next two or three stories in this series that I kind of forgot about this one. 
> 
> Oops.

* * *

The Trio had a chance Monday to sequester themselves up in Ron’s room.

Unfortunately, that was thanks to Carlin, who had invited Mrs. Weasley and Ginny to lunch.

The friends had reassured Ron’s mum that the sandwiches she left were enough and urged them to have a good time, citing their need to wrap up non-existent homework and to start reading up for exams.

Once they made sure the house was empty, they took the lunch and retreated behind Ron’s locked door.

“I think we should hurry about it,” Hermione told them. “We don’t know how long they’ll be gone.”

“Alright,” Ron nodded. “Let’s have this information, then.”

“You’ll need to sign the paperwork, too,” Harry gave him the small book that actually had the paperwork.

“He can’t do all of it right now, though,” she shook her head. “Remember, it took us almost four hours to complete our stacks.”

“It was kind of fun, though,” Harry shrugged. “Plus, Donners said that his would be shorter because he isn’t a minor anymore.”

Ron was given the information they couldn’t make heads or tails of as Harry and Hermione started looking over Tony’s notebook.

“I wonder what we would’ve done if it wasn’t already a notebook,” Harry mused.

“Palmer said that he would’ve taken the spells off,” Hermione reminded him.

They spent an hour going over what they had before they reconvened.

“Okay,” Hermione sat cross-legged on Harry’s bed. “Ron? Did you get anything?”

Their taller friend looked thoughtful. “You were right about me knowing what was in this information,” he told them. “I could read a lot of it, because Dad told me last year that me going into the Ministry with you and Hermione meant that I would have to learn some of this stuff sooner or later. From what I can see, Aniston was visiting different departments on a regular basis. He’s an important person with Tony’s office, so that’s not very suspicious.”

“But he could be using some of it as a cover,” Hermione pointed out. “He’s trying to frame Tony as a murderer in order to find him. He has to be at least telling the Killer who to target. That would go back to what his criteria are.”

“Unless he _is_ the Killer,” Harry pointed out.

“Actually,” Hermione frowned. “Hold on. What are some of the dates you found? Let’s cross-check them with the articles from the _Prophet_.”

“That’s brilliant,” Ron agreed.

After matching every date between them, Harry sighed. “So, we have the Ministry Killer – who is _not_ Tony – actually tracking Tony and using his power to do it. He’s also actually going to the victims’ houses and planting evidence to seal the suspicions of Tony’s involvement. But why Tony?”

“ _He_ doesn’t even know,” Hermione waved the notebook. “Aniston was evidently following him for some reason. See?”

Harry nodded, remembering several actual case entries, a few with an odd poker chip drawn in the corner of the page with what seemed to be a date, and mentions of Aniston following the notation of Winky’s delivery of the tokens.

_Saw Aniston a few times, glaring suspiciously in my direction. Not sure what his problem is. Must note future prank’s planning should occur away from MNP._

There were a few more, though nothing seemed to jump out at Tony.

_Got called into Vance’s office at NCIS. Aniston asking after my activities. Vance thinks my paperwork needs to level up to expectations. What is there to add after ‘suspect, evidence, confession, celebratory drinks,’ etc.? Already doing double everyone’s paperwork. What else do they want, the sink, too? *Must ask Abby about cocktail mix. That’s the only suspicious thing I’ve been drinking._

It clearly wasn’t the paperwork, as evidenced by Tony’s entry some pages later detailing being followed from a team coffee-run. Tony could tell, because he’d set up wards and charms over the years to keep an eye on his Muggle co-workers. Some of the charms alerted him to a Magical stalker.

“That doesn’t make sense, either,” Hermione spread her hands. “If Tony didn’t do anything, or thinks he didn’t do anything, why pick him?”

“Unless Aniston thought he was behaving odd,” Ron shrugged. “Doesn’t look like he was. Well, Tony’s American and he works with Muggles, so…”

“That is no reason for wanting Tony framed for murder!”

Harry bit his bottom lip thoughtfully.

The information on Aniston had dates matching every one of the murders – or close to them since some were killed days before being discovered and no one could quite agree on a date -, the victims probably being approached while Aniston was out on ‘official’ business. They couldn’t tell for sure.

Tony was targeted for some reason and was attacked in the park. Aniston becomes the Killer to spook him out of hiding, while making others believe Tony was behind the killings so they could find Tony for him. Harry didn’t want to think about what would happen should he be found. Merlin only knew what Aniston was going to do to Tony.

But while that was all well and good, the more mysterious part of it concerned Carlin and his attempts to hurt Harry. Nothing there made any kind of sense.

“Ron, we also found this,” Hermione turned to the very last page of the notebook, where that odd paragraph was written. “What do you make of it?”

He took the notebook and studied it before shaking his head. “Looks like Tony went to the Ministry, too. Whatever this is, he got it from the Department of Mysteries, see that ‘Dom’ in the lower corner? That’s a place that’s got things in it that no-one but a few know exist. Have to wonder what he was doing down there.” Ron flipped through the rest of the notebook.

“Oh, Ron,” Harry took it from him and flipped it a few pages. “He wrote here something about you and Fourth Year. Did he say anything to you about it?”

A lot of things happened during Fourth Year, so they couldn’t even begin to guess.

“No, I don’t think so. Not directly to me, at least.” Ron, though, looked like there was an idea there, but he stubbornly shook his head. “Was there something in his letters, you reckon?”

** * *

They spent the next few days going over every letter since Fourth Year with a fine-toothed comb.

“The bloody hell _I_ know!” Ron threw his hands up. “If you two don’t have anything, and I don’t have anything, what in Merlin’s name is he talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Hermione rubbed her eyes.

Mrs. Weasley was out again, though she was at the market this time instead of at lunch. Ginny went over to Luna Lovegood’s house with a few other girls.

The Trio didn’t know a lot at this point. Tony was the only one who could hope to put any of it together.

“But doesn’t it feel like we’ve got enough to be getting on with?” Hermione pressed the center of her forehead.

“Maybe, but we’ll never know,” Ron shrugged.

“Tony can figure this out,” Harry sighed. “He’s actually trained for this type of thing. But, yeah, Hermione, I think we’ve got enough of _something_. Maybe we’re looking at some of it wrong.”

“How should we be looking, then?” Ron wanted to know.

“Beats me.”

“Although,” Hermione looked between them with a grin. “This really is all very exciting, isn’t it? Solving murders, hunting down clues… I sort of feel like an NCIS Agent, myself.”

“Think we’ll be able to do this sort of thing when we join the Ministry?” Harry grinned back.

“ _Anything_ would be better than Percy’s job,” Ron snorted. “Give me that paperwork Donners sent with you. Maybe we can find something that’ll let us work with the Agents of MNP.”

“Or Tony,” Harry smiled.

“You better sodding _believe_ I won’t be letting him out of my sight after we get him back,” Ron agreed.

“That would be something,” Hermione sighed dreamily. “Getting to do all this with Tony day after day… I wouldn’t ever be bored.”

“I didn’t think she ever did,” Ron told Harry.

Hermione whacked them with pillows before deciding to see what she could snack on in the kitchen.

** *

“Oh, it’s so good to be back,” Hermione stretched high as the Trio and Ginny found themselves in Vince Muldoon’s living room the day they were to return to school. “Thanks for looking after us again,” she told Mrs. Muldoon.

“Don’t think anything of it,” she flapped a hand. “This way, you can all head back to school after getting things at the village.”

Ginny, Vince and the other three headed out after saying good-bye and they spent about an hour getting as much sweets as they could carry.

“There’s something to be said about living in Hogsmeade,” Ron crunched on a piece of hard candy.

“Yeah,” the others agreed.

“I do this by myself after every break,” Vince told him.

“Invite us next time,” Ginny said from Hermione’s other side. “So we can eat sweets with you.”

“I’m sure Mum won’t mind if we don’t come by for Easter next year,” Ron mused. “I reckon she’d be too busy with Fleur and her family to bother with us.”

“And think of it this way,” Harry grinned. “You won’t be underfoot.”

“You mean ‘we’ won’t be underfoot,” Hermione corrected. “She would have to invite us.”

“And Tony,” Ginny added.

The Trio gave her a sharp glance, all remembering the youngest Weasley’s role in their current marital status.

“What?” she frowned defensively. “I can’t imagine the three of you without him, now. He may as well be part of the family for all the time he’s spent with us already.”

“Of _course_ he’s part of the family,” Ron deadpanned, exchanging a smile with Harry. “We adopted him.”

It went deeper than that, of course, but the only two that didn’t already know didn’t need to.

Well, yet, anyway.

If ever.

The Trio went one way and the other two went their own ways, all promising to meet at the Honeyduke’s closer to the school in three hours.

“We need to drop the message off at where we found Agent,” Hermione reminded them. “We should also wait about a week before checking it to be sure he has enough time to answer.”

“I could check it when I do my test,” Ron volunteered.

“Then you need to really remember what it looks like,” she told him. “So you could Apparate directly there. Throw the test if you need to.”

“I never thought I’d see the day where I heard you say that,” Harry teased. “Tony would be over the moon, knowing you were denouncing a test in his honor.”

“Well, of course, I would,” she shrugged. “His safety is higher than any old test we could take whenever we wanted.”

And it was important to their own continued good health that he was safe. That led Harry to thinking of the tokens they found at Tony’s flat.

They had the ones he gave them. They also had access to each other, but Tony didn’t have one or the other. How was he doing if there didn’t yet seem to be any negative effects concerning the marriage bond?

That odd feeling in his stomach had almost disappeared when he was in physical contact with Ron, or near him.

What about Tony? He must be feeling horrible right now.

But, if that was the case, then why weren’t they experiencing anything even remotely similar to what they’d gone through the last time?

“If Tony really is here,” Ron mused. “He could probably be anyone.”

“Maybe we’ve seen him, but he must be undercover so we won’t recognize him,” Hermione thought aloud. “I mean, it’s one thing to be undercover with access to your wand, but Tony’s been doing this around Muggles, too. He could virtually be anyone.”

“But there’re spells to know if anyone’s using magic,” Ron noted. “Though, I guess he could be that bloke over there."

“Where?” Harry turned to look where he was pointing. He recognized the blond watching them thoughtfully. “That’s not Tony, that’s Phil.”

“How do you know that’s not him?”

“Phil?” Hermione turned to look. “Phil! Hello!”

“Hey, there,” the tall blond made his way over to them, looking around nervously. “He’s not here with you, is he?”

“Agent’s not here,” she assured. “He’s on the train coming here, though.”

“I didn’t think they allowed dogs on trains,” he mused.

“We got special permission from the Headmaster. Oh, this is Ron. He was at home when we met you last time.”

“Hi, Ron. I’m Phil,” they shook hands.

“Are you taking another vacation?” Harry wanted to know.

“No, I’m actually passing through on my way to Germany,” he smiled brightly. “I have connections there. I didn’t actually expect to see you, though.”

“We’re actually going back to school tomorrow,” Hermione informed him.

“Ah, so you’re just taking a last stroll of freedom?” he chuckled.

“Yeah, you could say that.”

They exchanged a few more words before Phil had to go.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you next year,” he winked.

“We’ll see you then,” they waved at his back.

“Are we _sure_ that wasn’t Tony?” Ron had to ask.

“I’m fairly certain that wasn’t,” Hermione frowned at him. “Our magic didn’t react to him at all.”

They made their way over to the spot where they found Agent all those months ago before they knew that Tony was in danger and they were more worried about homework than solving murders.

Now that she could legally do magic, Hermione charmed the note to only be visible to Tony or the three of them. They placed it where they found the mobile and had a closer look around to be sure they didn’t miss any other clues that may have been provided and overlooked the last time. Ron made sure to stare at the area doubly hard to be certain that he would Apparate there during the test.

They were running low on time, so they headed for Honeyduke’s and met up with Vince and a scant few others who also lived in Hogsmeade.

Ginny showed up an hour later with shopping bags in tow.

“I thought I would get a head start on birthday shopping,” she told them. “And I finished half of my Christmas shopping list already. There are a few things I need to get for the wedding, but I can take care of that later before sending them off to Mum so she could keep an eye on them.”

They made their way up to the castle where the Trio spent some time warding their belongings from snoopers and Harry spent a few hours flying with Ron before settling down with Adrienne’s diary to read a few passages. He had to shake his head at her brilliance, though.

If he hadn’t known any better, he would say she really _was_ a Muggle.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were playing Exploding Snap when the rest of the students returned to school just in time for dinner.

The portrait opened to admit a bunch of Gryffindors, Colin and Dennis Creevey among them.

“Harry! Harry!” Colin immediately spotted them. “You won’t believe what’s happened!”

“Yeah,” one of the Third Years agreed. “Everyone’s been talking about it.”

“It’s really lucky that Agent got to stay with the Benson triplets,” Dennis added. “He’s a hero!”

“What?” Hermione looked up at him with a frown. “What’s happened?”

More Gryffindors streamed in, each immediately deciding to tell the Trio what happened, but there were so many people talking that none of the three could make heads or tails of anything.

“Hey!” one of the Prefects yelled some minutes later. “It’s time for dinner!”

“Keep your eyes open for AJ or one of the triplets,” Hermione turned to her friends. “When you spot them, grab them. One of the four has to have the full story.”

The excited crowd flowed out of the Common Room, taking the Trio with them, each seemingly deciding to congratulate Harry, Ron and Hermione on Agent’s heroic actions.

It was long minutes before they got a spot at their House Table, where they finally found the triplets cooing over a highly embarrassed Agent. The dog spotted them and slinked over to hide between their legs under the table.

“It was so brave of him,” the Hufflepuff triplet beamed as her Gryffindor sister sat with them. Their Ravenclaw third stood between her sisters, all touching each other somehow.

“We are so lucky that you let us have him for the last two weeks of vacation,” Gryffindor gushed. “Otherwise, I don’t think we would be here.”

“Yeah,” Ravenclaw agreed. “He knew something was wrong and woke up the whole house!”

The Trio kept looking at each other in disbelief as the full story of Agent, the Brave Gryffindor, finally came out.

Evidently, once during the second week of vacation – when AJ (who Harry would have expected to have materialized next to him as he was taking a drink of pumpkin juice at this point) was still with them –, the four girls stayed in the triplets’ shared room as Agent was sleeping in the hall between all the bedrooms. In the middle of the night, the house was woken up by Agent barking at the kitchen window.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that there had been someone looking in through the window.

“That was scary all by itself,” Gryffindor told them. “But it got even _worse_ last week.”

AJ was at her own place by then, so the triplets had brought Agent in to sleep with them.

Their parents had taken the lurker as the warning they were and had doubled up the protective charms and alerts in the time between the two events. So, they had been confident that they were safe.

Then, the night Agent was in with the girls, he woke them up with growls directed at the locked bedroom door.

“He had been an angel before then,” Ravenclaw explained. “So, we were really freaked out when we woke up to hear growls.”

“It was really scary,” Hufflepuff nodded. “Especially when he started barking.”

Scared and not at all sure what was going on, the triplets had huddled together and had watched with wide eyes as Agent snarled at whatever – or _who_ – was on the other side of the door. Luckily, Gryffindor remembered that they had a sort of servant calling system and quickly pulled the tassel connected to their parents’ room.

They, in turn, set off the alarms in the house and the closer grandparents and cousins immediately came to the rescue. When the parents got the door open, Agent immediately gave chase while some of the oldest cousins went after him to help apprehend the intruder.

“Whoever it was somehow got past everything everyone put up,” Hufflepuff finished. “We wouldn’t have known they were in the house or anything if it hadn’t been for our brave Agent.”

Ron stuck his head under the table. “You did that? Wow, I guess it’s true that once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor.”

Harry was proud of his Godfather. He protected helpless First Years – and others - with no regards as to his own well-being. “Now you know how I feel,” Harry told him, the dog’s paws over his black nose in an attempt to hide.

“Did you catch them?” Neville never did get the last of the story, so he didn’t know how it ended.

“No, they got away,” Ravenclaw shook her head. “But the neighbors are keeping an eye out, now. Whoever it was won’t be getting away again.”

Dinner eventually started and it was all anyone could talk about.

“My aunt didn’t use to like dogs,” Gryffindor told them as her sisters went to join their own Houses. “Now, she doesn’t mind them. She even pet Agent and let him sit next to her!”

“Agent did good,” Vince threw in from Neville’s other side.

“He did,” Ginny agreed.

Once a majority of dinner passed, other students – mostly from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff – came up to tell the Trio that they had a very courageous dog and that it was only fitting that a Gryffindor’s dog ended up saving the day.

When dessert was finished, the Headmaster stood and the Hall quieted.

“I am pleased to have us all together again,” he said. “Nothing brings me more joy than to look out over this Great Hall to see others staring back at me. This is such the case when I look out to see three siblings sitting with their Housemates after quite an ordeal. It has come to my attention that we have a true Gryffindor amongst us, one who threw himself into danger to save those who could not save themselves.”

There was not a doubt in anyone’s mind as to whom he was referring to.

“Mr. Potter, I ask that you, ahem, _escort_ our friend up here,” Dumbledore invited.

“Come on, Agent,” Ginny prodded him with a foot. “Go on.”

He whined in response.

“You brought this on yourself, mate,” Dean Thomas told him.

Harry finally managed to coax his Godfather up and out from under the table to walk up to the Headmaster.

“As Headmaster,” Dumbledore placed a hand on Agent’s head. “I welcome you, Agent, as an honorary member of the Hogwarts House of Gryffindor.” Amidst the cheering coming from the assembled crowd, he continued, “In addition, due to your bravery earlier this year in saving another student, you will be granted access to the Hufflepuff commons and Ravenclaw Tower for as long as you shall deem us worthy of visitation for the rest of your natural life.”

McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout came from their seats to shake Agent’s paw and thank him for so bravely coming to the defense of their students. Harry didn’t miss the wink his Head of House gave them both, but he didn’t think anything of it, as the rest of his House and classmates cheered them on.

 

** * ** *


	47. Chapter 47

Agent was the darling of three Houses and didn’t seem to be enjoying much of the attention.

He refused to leave Gryffindor Tower – and the space under Harry’s bed – at least until Thursday.

The other students were understandably anxious to make sure he was doing alright, but most understood that he was shy.

“I wish I could get away with hiding under the bed,” Harry quipped Friday morning as the boys were getting ready for classes. “It would help a lot sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Ron sighed. “Me, too.” He was going to be taking the test tomorrow.

“You’ll do fine,” Hermione told him from her spot by the door. “But remember to concentrate on your target.”

“Yeah.”

It was when they were going to lunch that they were waylaid by Neville, who needed to run back to the greenhouses to talk to Sprout. He also needed to get his Potions book from where he’d left it in the Hospital Wing while he was being fixed up by the Nurse after Seamus accidently hurled a jinx at him.

Hermione reassured him that they would take care of it. Luckily, they weren’t near the Great Hall, so they hurried upstairs to the Hospital to get it.

“Where did he say he was, again?” Ron looked around the room full of beds.

“That one,” Hermione pointed all the way across the room. The boys headed over, but shook their heads after a few minutes.

“It’s not here,” Harry called back.

“What’s not?”

“ _Bloody_ Hell,” Ron clutched his racing heart. “Do you know how really not okay that is?”

“Is that AJ?” Hermione frowned, heading over.

Harry straightened from where he had his head on the mattress after almost jumping through the roof and put a smile on his face before turning to AJ. It quickly dropped off after getting a good look at the First Year Hufflepuff.

“AJ!” Hermione got a good look at her, too. “What happened? Are you alright?”

The brunette nodded. She looked pale and like she hadn’t eaten in a few days and like sleep had not come, to boot. “Yeah.”

“You don’t look like it,” Ron eyed her.

“I caught something the day before break ended,” she shrugged. “I wanted to make sure I didn’t have it anymore. That’s why I’m here. To get one last Pepper-Up potion.”

“Is that why you haven’t been sneaking up on us lately? _Ow_ , Hermione! I mean, around?” Ron gingerly rubbed his kicked ankle.

“Are you feeling alright, now?” Hermione smiled, warm brown eyes concerned.

“I think so.”

Harry felt really guilty for not noticing her absence as much as he probably should have, but he’d been preoccupied with Agent.

“Don’t feel bad, Harry,” the brunette patted his arm, seeming to read his thoughts. “I would have forgotten about me, too, if I had a heroic dog.” She smiled, though it didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “Oh, did Neville forget his book?” she took it out of her bag. “I thought that was his. I was going to find him and return it.”

“We’ll take care of it,” Hermione promised. “Did you get your potion? We can walk you to lunch.”

“Yeah,” she nodded almost drowsily. “I need to go eat before I take some.”

Hermione threaded their arms together as Harry took the Hufflepuff’s bag. “You can eat with us,” she assured, leading the younger girl out of the Hospital Wing.

The boys trailed behind them, exchanging glances.

“What the bloody hell kind of bug could she have caught?” Ron muttered to Harry.

“A Muggle one?” he shrugged.

They made sure she ate as much lunch as she could handle, the triplets also encouraging her to take one more bite. Agent found that no one would really bother him if he was comforting someone, so he stuck close to AJ’s legs and even followed her to the Hufflepuff commons where she had been ordered to by Sprout.

* ** *

Saturday saw all the Sixth Years gathered in the Great Hall.

Agent watched from the sidelines as the seventeen year olds were weeded from the rest of their classmates to take the Apparition test once all of them had tried to Apparate at least twice.

The students had all gotten the basics of it, and the seventeen year olds were going to take the test.

Harry, Hermione and Agent watched Ron get called up from the group of seventeen year olds, along with all the rest of the underage students. Ron stood in the middle of the circle and took one last look at the three of them before breathing in and closing his eyes.

“I hope he remembers,” Hermione whispered. “A week should be enough time for a reply, right?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded. “Unless Tony is doing something else, he should have answered the note we left at the place where we found the mobile.”

Hermione sighed and watched Ron blink out of sight. Feeling a nudge, she glanced down at Agent’s curious woof and smiled slightly. “We left a message for Tony, because we have reason to believe that he is in Hogsmeade – or at least in the area.”

They waited for two long, agonizing hours before Ron came back.

“Sorry about having to retake the test,” Harry told him.

“Don’t worry,” he shrugged. “I can just do it with you or something. What’s half an eyebrow? But, look. I went over the place like Mum in the twins’ room, but I couldn’t find anything that said Tony may have been there. The note’s not been touched, either.”

That didn’t bode well for any of them.

Harry spent almost half the night in the Common Room, just staring into the fire as Agent lay across his lap, fingers idly stroking soft dark fur in worry.

** *

It ended up being a good thing that they hadn’t heard from Tony.

Tuesday afternoon, they were just coming back into the castle from class with Hagrid when Vince almost crashed into them.

“Harry,” he put his hands on the other’s shoulders. “Your things are being searched.”

A sharp stab of panic hit him as his mouth went dry.

“What?” Hermione demanded.

“They’re checking your trunk, too,” Vince told her. “And Ron’s. One of the Prefects told me to tell you.”

They were already racing toward the Tower, Vince hot on their heels, before he finished.

Bursting into the Common Room, they found a group of younger Years staring towards the Sixth Year Boys’ Dorm. None of the spectators knew what was happening, but they knew it wasn’t good.

McGonagall stepped out of the room as they climbed up to it and gave them an indescribable look. “Ms. Granger, I’m afraid we needed to go through your belongings, as well.”

“Oh, there you all are,” Carlin stepped into view. He seemed incredibly apologetic. “We started without you.”

Harry pushed past and found the contents of his, Hermione and Ron’s trunks dumped on the floor.

“We are terribly sorry,” Flitwick told them. “But, we had reason to believe that you… er. Well.”

Dumbledore, Sprout and _Aniston_ were there as well. The former seemed incredibly distressed. The latter appeared to be reigning in his fury.

“Harry,” Dumbledore glanced between the horrified friends. “You must forgive the intrusion,” he looked every one of his hundred-plus years. “You see, we had a reliable source suspect that you were in contact with Tony –”

“Why would we?” Hermione found her voice first. “He’s undercover and it’s dangerous to break cover when you’re in deep.” Harry and Ron both knew that she was trying hard not to panic. “And what if he did manage to contact us?”

“This _is_ the second time you’ve asked about Tony,” Harry pointed out. “Why?”

“He is undercover, yes,” McGonagall entered the conversation. “But we had been assured that there was something in your possession that was related to his case.”

“I don’t think I have anything,” Ron shook his head. “And I would’ve seen if these two had anything, too.”

“I don’t think any of you do, either,” Sprout looked at the contents on the floor. “We certainly didn’t find anything of the sort here.”

Having been ready to take the consequences, Harry stared at her before remembering that they were supposed to be innocent.

“We deeply apologize,” Carlin seemed nervous and ready to bolt, “for our hasty actions.”

“We needed to be sure,” Flitwick piped up. “Not that we don’t trust you.”

“Of course, Professors,” Hermione smiled with understanding. It was scary how real she made it seem. “We understand.”

Carlin seemed happy to run, Sprout and Flitwick following.

“If you do hear from him,” McGonagall leveled a look on Harry, “please know that my door is always open to you.”

He got the message: ‘Tell me and I shall not betray you.’

“Agent Aniston was so certain,” Dumbledore smiled apologetically. “I must express my sincerest apologies, my friend. It appears that your information was false.”

“So it appears,” Aniston bit out, narrowed eyes attempting to stare the Trio down. They met his gaze and held steady. “Rest assured,” he stepped forward. “My information is never wrong. I will get to the bottom of this and should I find a trace of your involvement – ” he breathed deeply. “It is illegal to aid, abet or harbor a criminal.”

“I’m sure it is,” Harry narrowed his own eyes. “But only if the person _is_ a criminal.”

They stared each other down – Harry’s friends glaring right beside him – for long moments before Dumbledore coaxed him away and to his office for some tea.

“Good Merlin, what a mess,” Vince looked around. “Do you need help?”

“No,” Ron told him flatly.

“Alright. Just ask, though,” he closed the door on his way out.

Once the door was shut, they dove for the floor.

“What did they mean when they didn’t find anything?” Harry demanded, looking frantically for Tony’s things, the ones Hermione didn’t have in her trunk for safekeeping.

Ron had some other things and Hermione had the rest, but, after frantic minutes, they sat back.

Tony’s things were _gone_.

“But where could it all be?” Hermione looked on the verge of a panic attack.

Ron was pale when he caught Harry’s eye. The panic, devastation and guilt that they weren’t careful enough to keep Tony from discovery was overwhelming.

But if Tony’s things, the information on Aniston and their tokens from him were gone –

“Harry,” Ron frowned, checking the floor again. “Did you take the Map and Cloak out of your trunk?”

“What?” Hermione looked again, eyes widening as she didn’t find them, either. The radios were always on them and the knives, too. The Army knives had been especially useful while out in Muggle America as potential weapons and helped to search for the 'gold star' notebook.

“I haven’t had them out in ages,” Harry shook his head, thoughts racing. “Do you think,” he looked at each, “the magic block is gone?”

“We left Agent in the Tower,” Hermione slowly nodded. “I didn’t hear barking.”

“I didn’t see him,” Ron told him. “I just thought that they had him in here, but…”

“Sirius took them,” Hermione slumped against Harry’s bed in debilitating relief. “We had them out enough for him to know what to take.”

“Thank Merlin,” Harry sighed, happiness filling him at the thought that his Godfather was one step closer to being well.

“That’s great,” Ron grinned. “But… if Sirius _did_ take them… where’s he now and where did he hide them?”

Hermione just shook her head. “I’m not worried. He’s got the Map again. And with the Cloak, I’m just hoping he won’t prank anyone.”

Keeping that in mind, they kept themselves calm as they gathered their things and returned them to the correct trunk.

But when they asked around, a different kind of panic started taking hold when no one had seen Agent since McGonagall had swept in to look for the Trio. While that was sort of odd – because one, they were pretty sure she had their schedules memorized and two, Hermione was sure that she could have used a locator spell -, Ron pointed out that maybe Aniston had put hard pressure on the others and convinced them that the Trio would lie.

“And he could have wanted to see us confronted with the evidence,” Hermione agreed.

In any case, Agent had disappeared for hours – only to reappear halfway through dinner when Hagrid showed up.

“Found ‘im near me Hut,” he waved their gratitude away. “Migh’ wanta keep an eye on ‘im, ‘Arry,” he winked before moving on.

“Where have you been?” Hermione scolded, Ron and Harry petting him with overwhelming relief. “We were worried sick.”

“Yeah,” Ron frowned. “Tell us when you’re gonna disappear like that.”

“Although, it _is_ good you didn’t get caught,” Harry mused. “Aniston was snooping around, but where _did_ you go?”

Grey eyes locked onto his green as Agent deliberately pawed at his collar. Harry frowned before realizing that the collar was too tight.

“Hold still,” he reached for the buckle. “Somehow, your collar got tight.” But as he loosened it, his eye caught the corner of something sticking out of the collar. “What’s this?” he fished it out and almost dropped it when he recognized the scrap of paper. He turned wide eyes on Agent to see a hint of mischief and shook his head with a grin. “You’re both impossible,” Harry huffed a laugh. “Look at what Agent found.”

“Blimey,” Ron’s face broke out into a grin as Hermione gasped. “So _that’s_ where he was!”

“Open it,” she ordered.

Harry did and felt his spirits soar. Hermione had written ‘Are you there?’ and a familiar, yet shaky, scrawl responded:

 _Yes_.

 ** *


	48. Chapter 48

The week passed in a daze for the Trio.

They were so relieved that Tony was near and doing alright. It would’ve been better if they actually got to see, hear and touch him, but they would have to make do until Hogsmeade where they could track him down.

It was Wednesday when they found out what had happened to the things taken from their trunks.

Harry was finishing up his Charms homework in the Library when AJ and her three friends came upon him.

“Hi, Potter,” the Ravenclaw greeted. “Where’re the other two?”

“Oh, they had a Prefect meeting,” Harry shrugged. “Agent’s running around the Quidditch Pitch with Vince Muldoon and Ben Dunne.”

The match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was set for the middle of exams. Slytherin had underestimated the ‘Puffs and lost against them, even though they caught the Snitch.

“We should probably be doing our own homework,” Gryffindor noted. “We have a lot of studying to do. See you later, AJ,” the three moved off to a further corner.

“You didn’t go?” Harry glanced up at her, satisfied that she got over whatever ill she’d had.

“No… Actually, I wanted to talk to you alone.” She settled at the table next to him. “We’re friends, right? You, me, Ron and Hermione?”

“Yes, of course, we are,” he gave her his undivided attention. “What’s brought this on?”

“Well… I can’t say for sure, but I think I went sleepwalking to Gryffindor Tower,” she fidgeted. “I opened my trunk before bed a few nights ago and found a bunch of stuff that didn’t belong to me.”

“Was one of them a notebook?” he blinked. Why hadn’t he thought of asking AJ before? Sirius knew that they could trust her. But they hadn’t told her what was going on because the Trio didn’t want anyone else getting in trouble.

“Yes,” she was surprised. “One with a gold star.”

“That’s what we lost, then,” he squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to ask you before.”

“So, it’s alright that I might have stolen it?” she was worried.

“AJ, I don’t think you did anything of the sort,” he reassured. “Someone helped us by hiding things that we didn’t want found in your trunk. Don’t think for a minute that you did this.”

“Alright, good,” she breathed a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing. “I wasn’t sure how you would react.”

“Do you have time to get those things?” he wanted to know. “Only, I would feel a lot better if I had them back.”

“Sure, I can go get them,” she nodded. AJ bit her lip as she watched him. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you while we were staying with Vince, but you remember I read the Quibbler article about you seeing the Dark Lord coming back? I believe you, because I know you and you have no reason to lie about anything like that.”

“I’m glad you do,” he said sincerely.

“I wouldn’t be a Hufflepuff if I didn’t believe you,” she went on. “The Sorting Hat talked to me about having friends.”

“Did it?” he tilted his head, not surprised. It talked to him, too.

“Yes,” she nodded. “It said, ‘You have the mind of a Ravenclaw, the spirit of a Slytherin, the soul of a Gryffindor and the heart of a Hufflepuff. It’s not very often I see the likes of someone like yourself. A very precious gem, indeed. But it’s somewhat difficult for me to place you. You would succeed in Ravenclaw and you would do well in Slytherin, too. But, perhaps, it would do you well to follow in your mother’s footsteps in Gryffindor. Of course, I would be doing your friends a great disservice if I did not put you in HUFFLEPUFF!’ So, you see,” she shrugged. “Hufflepuffs are loyal to their friends. That is why I am loyal to you.”

That filled him with warmth. “But you don’t have to be loyal to me just because you’re a Hufflepuff.”

“I know. But, I just wanted to tell you in case you are mixed up and don’t know who to trust. I’ll go get your stuff.”

“Thanks for telling me,” he told her as she went. She waved before walking out of sight.

Shaking his head, he wondered if he should have told her what she told him back in his room the night of her birthday party. Of course, he also wondered if she believed in Seers. Hermione didn’t.

Harry ran into AJ outside the Tower and it was with great relief that he took it with a heartfelt thank you.

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” she waved him away. “I’m going to head back to the Common Room, so I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see you,” he waved before going up to his room to look through all the returned items. He laid it all out on the floor in front of his trunk and ticked them all off: Tony’s notebook, the information on Aniston, the mobile, their letters, two full bags of tokens… All seemed to be in order… No, wait. Tony’s wand wasn’t there.

‘Maybe AJ didn’t think about picking it up,’ he mused, before noting that the meeting should have ended by now. He took out his radio and hailed Hermione.

“ _Yes?_ ” she answered.

“Are you and Ron on your way back?” he wanted to know.

“ _I am_ ,” she told him. _“Ron had to go run a message to someone. Why?”_

“AJ had all of Tony’s things,” he answered. “She just gave it all back, including the Cloak and the Map. But Tony’s wand must have dropped from her arms somewhere along the way, because it’s not here.”

 _“Alright_ ,” she conceded. “ _I’ll swing by the Hufflepuff Common Room and ask if she’s seen it or if it’s still in her room.”_

“Thanks, Hermione.” He signed off. He started putting the things back in his trunk when he noticed something odd.

The bag of tokens from Tony seemed a little… dusty.

But that couldn’t be, since they’d constantly been taking tokens out. And now that he thought about it, it shouldn’t be full, either.

Surely they were discarding the spent ones instead of putting them back in the pouch?

Harry dumped them out of the bag and ran his hands over them, frown growing deeper as he found that all of them were present, still full and ready to use.

But that couldn’t be, either. They’d been using it all in order to keep from getting sick…

They should have used most of them at this point. Why didn’t the evidence confirm this?

Then, the feeling that he should have had something in his pocket made sense. The feeling that he’d felt several times since a little after the New Year was trying to tell him to check his pockets.

But, if the tokens hadn’t been used, then why wouldn’t they have gotten sick by now?

The only logical explanation was that they would have been exposed to Tony’s magic on a regular enough basis that they wouldn’t have needed the tokens.

But Tony had disappeared without a trace...

...

Right?

Harry shook his head as he gathered all of them back in the pouch. Maybe Hermione would have a better answer.

Neville poked his head in soon after. “Did Ron come back yet?” he wanted to know. “Professor Sprout wanted to see him in the greenhouses.”

“No, he didn’t,” Harry shook his head. “Hermione told me that he had to go give a message to someone.”

“Oh, alright,” he nodded. “Maybe someone else told him. Thanks anyway.”

“Sure,” he waved, absently still frowning at the pouch.

His radio squawked and he answered it.

“ _Harry, did Agent come back from the Pitch?”_ Hermione’s frown was audible. _“Ben’s here and he says that Agent’s disappeared.”_

“What?” he sat up, attention snapping from the token mystery to her words. “No, he would have come up.”

 _“AJ’s tearing her room apart trying to find our other object,”_ she reported. _“She swore she hadn’t seen it, but it’s possible that it rolled out of sight somewhere.”_

“Well, she’ll find it if it’s there,” he shrugged, gut churning. “Ron’s not back, either. Neville said that Sprout wanted to talk to him in the greenhouses.”

_“Harry… Sprout’s not in the greenhouses. I just saw her and Sinistra in the hall.”_

“But that’s what Neville said. Sprout wanted to talk to him in the greenhouses.”

 _“Hold on_ ,” she sighed. “ _Vince is coming over.”_

Harry set the radio down before pulling the Marauder’s Map toward him. Maybe Agent was somewhere on the grounds.

“ _Harry,”_ Hermione suddenly spoke again. “ _Are you sure Neville said ‘Sprout in the Greenhouses’ and not ‘Snape by Hagrid’s Hut’?”_

“What are you talking about?”

Vince answered, _“I bumped into Ron on the way here. He said to tell you two that he was heading for Snape at the edge of the Forest.”_

Something was wrong. 

Harry started searching the Map for Ron’s location, but he wasn’t anywhere he should have been.

“Hermione, we need to get over to Hagrid’s,” he told her, struggling to stand.

 _“But what about Agent?_ ” she wanted to know.

“I’ll tell Neville to keep an eye out for him,” he assured. He headed downstairs and told Neville, who would tell Ginny, to keep an eye out for Agent.

As he was leaving, however, a group of Third Years were just arriving and he caught snatches of conversation.

“– I don’t think I would be very good at wand-less magic,” one commented.

“I’ve heard that it takes a while,” another assured. “Some can’t do much more than make things hover –”

_“I mean, sure, he can move things around without a word and make them hover and fly…”_

A crisp, clear image of the Quaffle just hovering in mid-air came to mind followed quickly by Hermione’s scarf flying into the stands.

The tokens were full and unused.

It looked like they hadn’t been touched.

Tony and the Trio needed to have exposure to each other’s magic.

The evidence suggested that they didn’t need the tokens because of regular contact with Tony that _shouldn’t be possible._

Harry remembered thinking that the trick with the fake bone cleverly disguising AJ’s hairbrush was something that both Tony and Sirius would have done and he also remembered looking at that odd braided part that looked sort of like grass.

What if it _had_ been grass?

He thought it looked familiar and it reminded him of Tony’s wigwam at the Burrow.

And what was it that McGonagall had said about Tony’s unique ability helping him blend in where others might not?

Suddenly, every small thing that had bothered him – from Sirius acting like he couldn’t remember the way to Gryffindor Tower those first few weeks, to not playing as many pranks as he probably could have – became crystal clear.

Ever since McGonagall talked with them at the Burrow, Harry had been thinking of one thing while she had _clearly_ been thinking of another. She had transformed into her feline form when Agent had chased Norris…

_‘Harry,’ AJ frowned after having come from Transfiguration one afternoon before Christmas. ‘How can you tell if a witch or wizard is an Animagus?’_

“Hermione, remember Fourth Year?”

_“Yes… Why? Did you figure out what Tony wanted to ask Ron?”_

“No, but I just realized something. Would you have figured out about Skeeter if she hadn’t been writing about me like she was?”

_“I don’t think so, why?”_

“You can’t tell, can you? You can’t tell if someone is an Animagus, right?”

_“Unless their register- What are you thinking?”_

“Hermione,” he began smiling as he broke into a run. “We haven’t been checking our facts.”

** * **

“This does bring back memories, doesn’t it?”

Remus Lupin smiled at the rush of nostalgia as he and the presence at his side proceeded through the gates of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

They had finally finished their assignment and both were happy to be done with it. They both missed Harry and his friends and their letters to each other.

Having finished earlier than expected, they had decided to visit the school to report to the Headmaster in person and maybe track the Trio down while they were at it, to reassure them that they had both come back in one piece.

Lupin led his friend out toward the Lake to see if they could find the Giant Squid and found a few students milling around.

“Professor Lupin,” one of the older students recognized him and immediately hurried over. “Oh, thank Merlin, you’ve found him.”

“Found who?” Lupin looked blank as the student pointed at the black dog that had been at his side.

“The Trio will be happy Agent’s safe,” he beamed. “We’ve been looking for him for over an hour. Oh, there’s Ginny and Neville.” The two Gryffindors were heading toward them.

“Moony,” Ginny smiled widely. “Thank Merlin he’s safe.” The other student immediately trotted off to spread the word that Agent was found alive and well, leaving the four alone.

“Where did you find him?” Neville wanted to know. “Last anyone saw him, he was at the Pitch.”

“I think there’s been some misunderstanding,” Lupin slowly looked between the two of them. “Sirius and I have been out on assignment since before school started.”

“Yeah, we know,” Ginny nodded. “And then the Trio found Snuffles near the cave where he was hiding so much. Then, Dumbledore decided that it would be safer to keep him at school since his magic was bound.”

Glancing between the teens and his old friend, Lupin slowly shook his head. “But that’s not possible. We were partnered for the assignment, since Snuffles couldn’t stay as a human for long. We rarely left each other’s side.”

The dog nodded and whuffed.

“No, _that_ isn’t possible, either,” Ginny shook her own head. “Snuffles has been using the alias ‘Agent’ since we got him.”

“Gin,” Neville leaned close, eyes on the dog beside Lupin. “I think… this _is_ Snuffles.”

“That can’t be Snuffles,” she insisted. “Snuffles, no, _Agent_ has been with us the entire year!”

But the more she stared at Snuffles, the more she started to doubt.

“So… you’re Snuffles,” she said weakly, dread beginning to rise as the dog in front of her nodded again. She stared blankly, the implications beginning to sink in as Neville startled with a thought.

“So, if _this_ is Snuffles…,” he swallowed.

Ginny slowly turned to look up at him, eyes wide with disbelief and slowly rising panic as she finished. “Then who’s _Agent_?”

*  ** *


	49. Chapter 49

Ron huffed as he tramped through the Forbidden Forest.

Honestly, the nerve of Severus Snape!

First, the man wanted to talk to him over by Hagrid’s Hut. Ron _swore_ he didn’t know what he did to get the man to single him out.

Then, when Ron actually _got_ to Hagrid’s Hut, Snape had a note telling him to gather some sort of ingredient only found further in the woods.

Hermione would have been a better choice!

Even Harry, for that matter!

Why him? What did _he_ do?

And for all he knew, Snape was actually waiting there for him, so it wasn’t like Ron could just walk back to Gryffindor Tower. He would end up in a month’s worth of detention!

Sighing at his misfortune, he tried the radio again. “Harry? Hermione? Tony? I’m doing Snape’s bidding and heading into the Forest.”

Still no answer. Odd how it almost seemed like it was unable to get a signal. Maybe Tony should look into that.

He held his wand out in front of him, the end lit up, and hoped he didn’t run into any Acromantulas this trip.

He wouldn’t mind running into the Ford Anglia that they had set free in Second Year, though.

Ron found himself in a very small clearing and frowned. He knew that the Forest was really big and that there was no chance that he could have come this way before, but it was still unnerving to not recognize anything around him.

He was probably far enough away to start looking for this ingredient that Ron had never heard of before – not that it would be a stretch, as he’d never heard of lots of potions ingredients before -, so he immediately turned his gaze to the ground.

Not exactly knowing what he was looking for, Ron rooted around, but didn’t find anything he wasn’t familiar with.

He was about to move on when he caught sight of something nestled in the roots of a tree.

“Wonder what this is,” he pried it from where it was resting for what looked like forever and held it to his face. Ron just got enough time to see that it was some sort of figurine before a flash of light narrowly missed his ear by _centimeters._

“Bloody hell,” he yelped, dropping to the ground. He still had that small figurine in his hand, so he shoved it into his pocket before grabbing the radio, blue eyes scanning the dim interior of the Forest. “Hello, can anyone hear me? It’s Ron Weasley and I’m under attack! I think Snape is behind it!” Still nothing. He growled and shoved it into his pocket, deciding to go back to the school.

He was about to take a step in that direction when another spell hit the ground centimeters from his shoe. He changed direction and started running, adrenalin flooding through him to make him run faster.

Whoever had been throwing spells at him began to give chase. In fact, he was horrified to hear _two_ sets of footsteps following him.

Ron didn’t know how long he ran for, but a spell finally caught him off balance and a sharp twinge of pain vaguely registered when his ankle twisted the wrong way as he went down.

In front of him was a big tree, its roots creating a small cove for him to press into and he crawled toward it, radio and wand clutched tightly in his hands.

Once his back was covered, he faced forward with his wand out and shaking as he tried to ward off his attackers. “Who – who’s there?” he tried staying calm and acting like the Gryffindor he was.

“Now, Ron,” he almost dropped the wand when Carlin stepped into view on his left. “We just want to talk to you, like we’ve been trying to all year. We’re friends, aren’t we? And friends talk.”

“We’re _not_ friends,” Ron corrected. “Fri- friends don’t come after you in the Forest when they’re trying to do what Snape said to.”

“Do you honestly think that fool of a teacher wanted to talk to you?”

Ron’s heart almost stopped as Michel Aniston came into view on his right. “You! You killed those people,” he realized too late that it wasn’t on to antagonize someone like Aniston.

But instead of being offended, he seemed almost amused.

“Yes, I did kill those men,” he agreed, standing completely still. “I killed those men and I am sorry for having to do what I did, but you see, I had to.”

“You didn’t have to kill them,” Ron really, really wished someone else was next to him right now. “What did they do to you?” No one really knew he was there, which didn’t help him right now, but he couldn’t help wanting someone to be looking for him. “What did _Harry_ do to you that you’d been wanting to do him in since you set eyes on him?” Ron demanded to know.

“Mr. Potter?” Carlin tilted his head. “Why, he is a lovely young man, isn’t he? Top marks in Defense, you know. He has a real talent for it.”

“We’re not after Mr. Potter,” Aniston actually rolled his eyes. “That little screw-up almost blew our plan.”

“But you know, I just don’t understand,” Carlin mused, acting like they were in the school kitchens for tea. “I did the spell and it worked, but not to the degree I was expecting. No, my boy, it wasn’t Mr. Potter or Ms. Granger that we were trying to injure.”

Ron shook his head violently. “No, it- it’s got to be Harry,” he insisted. “Why would you come after me? Both of you are mental, thinking You Know Who wants me dead.”

Carlin shook his head. “Lord Voldemort is just poor Harry’s overactive imagination, which really _has_ gotten out of hand, I think.”

“Of course _you_ would believe that child’s story,” Aniston shook his head. “Rarely does anyone see the two of you apart.”

“You _don’t_ believe it?” Ron was sure he was in shock. No way was he hearing what he thought he was hearing.

“Of course not,” Carlin told him. “Why would we?”

“Death Eaters loyal to Him claim not to believe it, either,” Ron wasn’t letting his guard down for a second.

“Mm. Terrorist groups are like that, yes,” Aniston nodded. “I can clearly assure you that the both of us have no need to become terrorists.”

“We’re just protecting Her from who is not right,” Carlin told Ron soberly before perking up. “You’re going to help us do that.”

Aniston raised his wand toward him and was about to fire a spell when a barrage of spells coming from behind Ron made them retreat.

“Ron!” the redhead had never been so happy to see his two best friends in that moment.

“They’re mental!” he scrambled to stand, being careful with his ankle. “They haven’t been trying to hurt you two or anyone else; I was their target!”

“It needed to be serious,” Carlin told them. “But not enough to kill you, Ron. Just enough to get Her here. I tried targeting your magic, but something went wrong with the spell.”

That explained all the ‘accidents’. The marriage bond connecting the Trio must have foiled that plan, but no one would have thought to look for it since they were still kids.

“You targeted his surface magic,” Hermione worked out, her wand locked on them as the boys did the same with Harry propping up Ron. “His magic can be put on a lot of things because it was too broad if it needed to look like an accident.”

“Yes,” Carlin agreed. “It _was_ too broad. I tried getting Ron and his sister to have lunch, but someone had broken into my office. Oh, and speaking of which, I really am sorry about Ms. Johnson. I let her similarities to that Man get the best of me, I see that now. I didn’t want to hurt her, either, but I had to take something back from her.”

“She said she thought someone had taken her hair ribbon!” Harry scowled.

“He tried to drown AJ because of a _hair ribbon_?” Ron was incredulous.

“A very _special_ hair ribbon,” Carlin defended. “She had dropped it and I always did mean to give it back, but…”

“And that Quidditch incident with the Bludgers and Harry’s broom,” Hermione started trembling at how close they had come to dying a number of times.

Ron was still struggling to come to terms with what had happened in the past hour. “And what about Ginny? Was she a target, too?”

“Oh, goodness, no,” Carlin looked horrified at the thought. “Ginny, the sweet girl, still has a lot of growing up to do.”

“But, yes,” Aniston had decided to join the conversation. “The broom we mistook for Ron’s, though it was too late by the time we realized it was Potter’s. And being Quidditch players, the both of you know that the Bludgers are already unpredictable. That, we would have been happy with, had it not been for the Hufflepuff brat. Although,” he paused, “looking back, perhaps we should not have gotten carried away. Or at least waited until you were by yourself.”

There was _clearly_ something wrong with them and Ron didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

“We heard you saying that you killed those men,” Harry revealed. “Why?”

“We already told you,” Carlin shrugged. “Michel wanted to be sure She didn’t ultimately get close to the wrong people. Well, again. They already had their chance, but they got distracted. We never would.”

“As to why,” Aniston continued, “I think you have a good idea.”

“To frame Tony,” Hermione stepped closer to her friends as the pair began to approach. “But we’ve never figured out why you picked him in particular. From all the wizards that you could have chosen to frame, why him?”

Harry nodded. “You could’ve let people keep thinking it was Sirius Black.”

“And why would we do that?” Aniston sounded like he genuinely wanted to know. “Black is of no use to us. DiNozzo was a much better choice. Having the attention on him would have more people looking for him and once he’s found, no one would think twice to his insistence of innocence.”

Ron looked at Harry, who nodded back at him. It was too reminiscent of Wormtail and framing Sirius for murder. And what did they mean that Sirius was of no use to them? Michel had recognized Agent, after all.

Hermione knew that, too. “But why him?” she repeated.

“Because he was a threat to the plan!” Aniston snarled. “Now, the three of you will come with us. We have a plan to finish and there is room for improvement for dealing with the extra two.”

Ron was about to throw a spell at them when they were all startled by a loud noise coming from behind the trees. “What in Merlin’s name is happening _now_?” he clutched Harry closer.

Above them, a boom preceded a shower of sparks as the firework detonated high above the trees.

“That would get attention!” Carlin turned to his cousin. “We need to go _now_!”

They began getting closer faster, but before they could get more than a few meters, smoke started billowing around them and quickly obscured all from view.

When the smoke cleared moments later, the Trio was gone.

**


	50. Chapter 50

They ran as fast as they could.

Hermione flitted from one place to another to keep an eye out for their pursuers.

“But none of this makes any sense,” Hermione gasped as they put as much distance between them as possible.

“Oh, yes, it does!”

Harry felt like he could fly without a broom.

Tony was safe and right next to them, helping him drag Ron, and this whole episode was soon going to be behind them.

“What are you talking about?” Ron panted. “Not that it’s not good to see you’re still alive, mate, but where did you come from? Or know how to find us? And what did those two mean when they said I was the target?”

“I don’t understand that, either,” Hermione shook her head. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but I’m drawing blanks.” And she had never had to deal with anything like this before.

Tony made them all stop for a moment, Harry slipping out from Ron’s shoulder to help Hermione secure the area.

“The thing with the three of you,” Tony rubbed his eyes. “Is that you shouldn’t know what’s going on. Every year, you have had to deal with someone trying to kill or maim Harry or something like that, because of Voldemort trying to get revenge and return to power. That danger is something that you are all familiar with, but for me? This is just another day at the office. I’m used to things like this.”

“Things like what?” Ron shook his head. “And why did they say that Sirius was of no use to them? Harry, didn’t you say that Michel recognized Sirius from when he was trying to help Tony in America?”

“Er, yeah…”

“If we ever live to see the end of this,” Tony pointed at him. “The four of us are going to have a discussion about illegal Animagi. Starting with how was I supposed to know he was a _black_ dog? When you told me about it during the Cup, you just said he turned into a dog. You didn’t go into specifics.”

“But that shouldn’t be possible,” Hermione shook her head. “Animagi _cannot_ be identical! And you don’t have grey eyes and black hair!”

“You’re an Animagus?” Ron was still trying to keep up. “And Sirius wasn’t here the entire time?”

“Yes, I’m unregistered and McGonagall knows it, too,” Tony confirmed that suspicion, "after one of those two bewitched Norris to try tripping Ron up and following him to find a way to get him alone. The marriage bond fixed that.”

“We know,” Hermione nodded.

“As for the coloring, your guess is as good as mine. I’ve had grey eyes and black fur since I actually became illegal. None of us could make any sense of that, either.”

“Do your friends know?” she asked. “I mean, your school friends.”

“Sparky, Pin and Booker,” Harry eyed Tony. “Are they Animagi, too?”

“Got it in one.”

“But you said that Moony was really the only Werewolf you knew,” Ron pointed out. “So, how did that come about?”

“Uh, you don’t go around telling the Dean’s son that he can’t do something that complicated because he’s too young and inexperienced, unless you plan on eating your words,” he smiled weakly. “Come on, we have to keep moving.”

Harry and Hermione were watching their backs as Tony and Ron started moving.

“But all those accidents were because of them trying to hurt Ron,” Harry told the Italian. “I just don’t understand what he did to them to get them after him.”

“It’s not because of what he did,” Tony shook his head. “Carlin and Aniston had met Molly Prewett before she really knew Arthur Weasley. They immediately adored her, but only Carlin could claim a close friendship. Fast forward decades later, a position comes up at Hogwarts for Carlin to get close to Molly again. This time through her youngest kids. Ginny reminds him of her mother enough that they wouldn’t dream of hurting her. Ron, on the other hand, reminds them of Arthur, so they come up with a plan to get Molly to come to the school because of an accident that has befallen the youngest boy.

“But, there’s a flaw in the plan. Other than the marriage bond, it comes to their attention that old school friends of Molly have re-connected with her. _Single_ old school friends.”

“That was the connection?” Hermione still didn’t understand it, either. “Mrs. Weasley’s old school friends are single, so they contact her and that gets them killed?”

“You found the notebook,” Tony pointed out. “Remember me saying something about Weasley and Fourth Year? I wasn’t talking about Ron. Back in Arthur and Molly’s Fourth Year, all the Ministry Killer victims – among others – actually kissed Molly for one reason or another. Even one of her female friends, but that was a dare. Some of them were even Molly’s old boyfriends, but she doesn’t really talk about them, does she? The single ones were more indispensable because they didn’t have family. My guess is that they had run into Molly somewhere on errands and she said something to Carlin. He got spooked that time was running out, so he gets his cousin to do something about it. Aniston has the clout, motive and opportunity, as we saw in the information you brought back with you. I had actually seen Aniston talking to one of the victims before he died, but I was actually going to the Ministry because of a paperwork snafu and I ended up getting lost in the Dept. of Mysteries.”

“That explains that thing in the book,” Ron nodded thoughtfully. “I thought that was the case.”

“I’ll get back to that later,” Tony promised. “I ran into Arthur as I was going and we had a drink at the Cauldron where he told me about really noticing Molly in his Fourth Year. I wrote it down a few days later.”

“But where do you come in?” Harry shook his head. “It’s something that we’ve been trying to figure out.”

“Well, you’ll have to keep trying to figure that one out,” Tony lifted a shoulder. “I have no idea. I just started noticing him one day taking an interest in me.”

“But you had to have started getting suspicious of him at the end, right?” Hermione noted. “Those witches said that you wanted information on Aniston.”

“Yeah, someone must have told them I wanted it,” Tony scowled. “About less than half of the MNP office knows that I get some of the best information from those girls. Someone else must have been investigating him and knew that if I was to ask about it, the girls would go out of their way to do it. In that area, at least, I was the means to an end.”

“They said they saw you, though,” Harry pointed out.

“Do you really believe everyone is who they say they are?” he returned.

“Could someone have used Polyjuice?” Hermione’s eyes widened.

“That’s only one of a dozen ways to make someone think that they’d seen me,” he shook his head. “I honestly don’t know, but I do know that I was trying to tie up some loose ends on the Muggle case, which was why I was in the park when Aniston ambushed me. He wanted me dead and he knew that I would be missed, so he made me untraceable and bound my magic into a form that he didn’t know I was already used to. I managed to Apparate before he could finish me off and you found me hours later. The cellphone had been in my pocket, so I had hoped that you had gotten suspicious enough of my disappearance to look into it. Since I had noted Aniston, I hoped you would start asking questions which would start getting people to start looking into things.”

“And you couldn’t tell us who you really were,” Harry added, “because we had assumed all this time that you were Sirius.”

“Yeah, you weren’t asking the right questions,” he chuckled humorlessly. “Or specifics. It wasn’t until I decided to make myself useful in investigating the ‘accidents’ that pieces started falling into place. I was watching you two flying around the Pitch from where you followed Hermione’s scarf. I overheard them talking and it was mostly luck that I kept finding them up there. I listened into enough conversations that I started getting worried. When I was with Mi and Harry in the village during the first week of Spring break, I was really upset with what Aniston had in store. And it was he that I detected at the Benson place twice. I think he was coming for me because he recognized me as Agent.”

“Alright,” Hermione breathed. “I think I have most of it. Before being attacked, you had no idea why Aniston was so interested in you. But after you disappeared, the Killer began killing those poor Ministry employees. Aniston had called you a threat to him, so he started framing you for the murders. We had thought that you might have done something to be perceived as a threat to him.”

“Which would make his framing me make more sense,” Tony nodded. “If I had stumbled onto something – or thought I had – and it was about the plan to get Molly emotionally vulnerable enough to compromise her, then I would be suspected as a leak who would try to spoil the plan. He wanted to make sure I didn’t do it, so he comes after me. I disappear without a trace, so he panics before he remembers that no one knows where I am. If I am a suspected serial killer, everyone would be looking for me. That gets the attention off him and leaves me as the scapegoat. The undercover story was great, because everyone knows I do undercover anyway and that would explain a great number of my absences.”

“So, about Mrs. Weasley… I don’t really understand that part of the story. If Carlin and Aniston liked her so much, then why would they want to endanger Ron if he reminds them of Mr. Weasley?”

“And why would anyone drown someone because of a hair ribbon?” Ron shook his head.

“Well, that’s where my experience comes in,” he shrugged. “As I said, revenge is probably easier for you to cope with. You’ve had to deal with it.”

“So, if that’s not revenge, what is it?” Harry wanted to know.

“Obsession,” Tony sighed. “It’s a dangerous thing. Being obsessed with a person is complicated, but there are staples across the board to recognize the really crazy ones.”

“Like killing people?”

“Kind of, yeah. Look, it’s hard for you to rationalize obsession because you don’t understand the kind of drive it takes for someone to really make someone or thing the focal point of their universe. They would do anything to make it theirs. They won’t let anyone stand in their way and that includes children. It’s a good thing that you kept the case to yourselves. You may have saved countless others.”

It was a sobering thought.

All of every incident since the year started had been because of someone’s obsession with Mrs. Weasley. Every potential fatal accident, every worry they had about Tony, every murder taken place in a city so far from them had been rooted in the ravings of two men who truly were mad in a way that not even Voldemort could pretend to be. That was even more dangerous than anything He could have come up with.

“It’s hard to believe,” Hermione touched Harry’s arm, probably knowing where his thoughts were turning. “Everything we’ve been through has been because of them and their need to have Mrs. Weasley for themselves.”

“AJ’s ribbon was probably from the stash Carlin has of Molly’s things,” Tony sighed, looking slightly older than Harry was used to. “It always has to be a stash of trophies. That’s one thing all of the obsessed have in common. And now that I think of it, that’s probably what happened with the fire in his office.”

“We’re going to have a hard time getting people to believe us,” Ron said weakly. “So focused on Harry that they are.”

“Mm,” Tony hummed non-committedly as they kept going. They wouldn’t understand what was going through his head until later, but none gave it a thought right now.

They focused on running for the next few minutes.

None of them were quite sure where they were, but they hoped someone had seen the fireworks and came looking before they were caught up with.

That hope was dashed when several spells came from the right.

“Wands up!” Tony ordered, immediately summoning a shield.

Hermione fired spells back, only for Harry to shield her from the other side as spells came from that direction.

Tony rested Ron against a tree before taking his own wand and covering Ron in front, while Harry and Hermione went to their sides.

“Alright, Carlin and Aniston,” he shouted, trying to draw himself up. Harry glanced at him and noticed that the adrenalin was wearing off now that they were stationary. Tony was starting to shake and he could only imagine the amount of energy it took to keep standing. They needed to get him to the Hospital and get him looked at. “Come out and finish this!”

Spells just kept coming from all around them.

Everyone could see that Tony was having trouble staying upright and Ron tried doing the best he could to help out. Tony wasn’t having it, though.

“You’re the target,” he kept pushing the other back. “Don’t let them get to you!”

Harry had a surreal moment, where he heard Ron insisting he could help and seeing Tony pushing him back. For a very real moment, Harry imagined his and Ron’s positions reversed and realized that they had in the past. Normally, it was _Harry_ being shielded, but now it was Ron.

Tony was trusting Harry to take care of himself as he focused on keeping Ron safe and Harry found that he liked the freedom of it, the independence. It was a heady feeling, one that made him determined to not let that trust be misplaced. He fought long and hard and the effort from the three of them combined eventually drew the attackers out.

Tony wasn’t going to last, though.

The effort to keep standing and his determination to keep Ron safe was now non-exclusive as the Italian suddenly crumpled.

“Tony!” Hermione was about to step forward when she looked up just in time to keep a spell from hitting Tony.

Ron managed to drag him closer to him and out of the line of fire, leaving Harry and Hermione against the cousins.

When Hermione was forced to move, she left a space of weakness and Carlin was about to take advantage, but _he_ was the one who ended up on the defense when a feline suddenly came from nowhere to launch at him. Balance compromised, the big black dog melted out of the shadows to tackle him, effectively taking Carlin down.

“Don’t let your guards down!” Agent Doug Donners roared as he jumped into the fray from their left.

Carlin had stuck both McGonagall and Sirius’ paws to the ground and rejoined the fight, Mac coming to the rescue when Harry wasn’t expecting the spells coming toward him.

“What in Merlin’s name took you so long?” Tony scowled from where he was leaning against Ron.

“Sorry,” Mac threw a grin at him. “Me and Palmer finally found traces of both your magic and Aniston’s in the park. We went to the office to see Donners, but then we found out that Aniston was at Hogsmeade. We got there just in time to see you send out the flare.”

“Took your sweet time,” Ron grumbled.

“Palmer went to go find the Headmaster,” she added. “They should be coming any time now.”

A bright bolt of blue suddenly flew over their heads and narrowly missed the Animagi stuck to the ground.

“And… that would be Palmer,” Tony groaned. “We need to work on that man’s aim.”

Remus led Dumbledore, Sprout, Flitwick, Snape and a few others into the fight.

Palmer finally managed to slip over to check on Tony and Ron. “What happened to who?”

“Tony is experiencing magical exhaustion,” Hermione kept one eye on the action as she answered. “The magic block wore off.”

“Yeah, I see that now,” Palmer waved his wand over the Italian. “You need attention more than Ron. Ron, you’re just going to need to ice it and keep it up.”

“We need to leave,” Remus left the others to join them.

“No,” Tony shook his head. “They won’t stop until Harry and Ron are taken down.”

“What?” Hermione whipped around and was about to open her mouth when Tony caught her eye.

“No,” Harry agreed, trusting the look in Tony’s eyes. “They won’t.”

“But what did they do?” Remus wanted to know.

“Well,” Tony lifted a shoulder. “Ron kept beating Carlin at chess, so he went a little crazy trying to finally beat him at something. Harry was trying to find me, but stumbled onto a scheme by Aniston.”

Remus had been a Marauder, so he knew when someone was lying no matter how good the liar might be. This was an obvious lie, but Palmer was about to say something when Tony cut a glance to the teachers, who were holding their own.

“It’s the official story, right now,” Tony scowled at them. “Sell it. We’ll go over what really happened when half of us aren’t in danger of dying.”

Almost as if on cue, a familiar green light suddenly filled the area.

Everyone turned to see where it hit, but Tony took the opportunity to find an energy reserve and take off running after where Killing Curse came from.

“Oh, no,” Palmer immediately took off toward the victim as Harry raced after him, knowing that Sirius had been close.

“Damn it!” Donners growled, suddenly getting a good look at Aniston. “Find out where that curse came from! Aniston’s projected a copy of himself to distract us and give us the runaround!”

“Tony went after him,” Ron hollered, pointing in that direction. Donners, Snape, Mac and Remus took off running as the others stayed to secure the area.

Harry knelt down next to his still grounded Godfather and shook his head. “That was close.”

The dog whined in agreement, wide eyes tracking to where Palmer was kneeling next to Carlin.

“It got him,” he sighed.

Hermione and Sprout gasped.

“We need to clear out the area,” Dumbledore looked grave. “I’m sure we’ll catch up with the others soon enough.”

** * **

Tony DiNozzo was a powerful Wizard.

His magic was still trying to balance back out, but that didn’t quite matter right now.

His anger was fueling him as he chased Aniston down, sounds of pursuit from behind him telling him that reinforcements were on the way.

What Aniston had done to Tony, almost done to Ron and had done to countless friends and families made him one very dead wizard by Tony’s logic. He had threatened a member of his family and he was going to pay one way or another.

The two finally came to a stop some yards away from the original group and Tony knew he had the man cornered.

“Alright, Aniston,” he held his wand up and aimed. “You know what happens to serial killers in America. In Britain, they’ll make the punishment seem like hell in comparison.”

“Yeah, I know about Azkaban,” he sneered. “But the Ministry is losing control there. The Dementors are leaving.”

“I don’t know if they would throw you into Azkaban or into the sea,” he snarled back. “And I don’t really care.”

“I am not without friends,” he shrugged.

Donners came to stand on Tony’s right. “I’m not without friends, either, Aniston,” he growled, eyes flashing. “And rest assured that you’ll be punished to the full extent of Wizarding Law. No getting out of it for you.”

“We shall see when I make some calls,” he taunted. “My circle is more powerful than yours is.”

“Yeah?” Tony was careful to keep his eyes locked on Aniston. “Well, _my_ circle is wider than yours is. Meaning, I have a more diverse group to fall back on. It extends far beyond family loyalty and the allies around me are more loyal to each other. Not to authority, not to country – and even, not to House.”

The small figure sneaking up behind Aniston took aim and unleashed the tripping jinx that Ginny had taught her, her aim true.

Once AJ had distracted him enough, Aniston was easy to deal with when Mac and Remus knocked him out.

Breathing in a sigh, Tony let his arm fall back to his side.

It was over.

** * ** *


	51. Chapter 51

The news spread like wildfire when the group all returned to the school.

Ron and Tony were whisked away once it was established that they were the worst off, and Donners released the unconscious Aniston to the waiting mix of American Agents and Ministry Aurors with the strict edict that Aniston was to stay unconscious until the investigation was over.

AJ had followed Palmer’s group after they saw the sparks Tony shot up. Harry and Hermione were very glad that she had and was able to save Tony.

Sirius was now masquerading as Agent, much to his amusement, and things slowly went normal from there.

It turned out that Carlin had had little fans among the students, who weren’t as upset as everyone but Tony and the Trio expected. Hufflepuff House had taken offense when AJ was picked on and seemed glad that they didn’t have to deal with him anymore.

Slytherin House wasn’t all that affected, but Ravenclaw House had seemed a little sad that an intelligent conversationalist was gone.

Gryffindor House, understandably, threw a fit when it came out that two of their brothers had been the targets of their late Professor and was adamant that the pair never go anywhere by themselves.

All the teachers made their apologies to the Trio about cornering them about Tony, which were frostily accepted on Tony’s prodding.

Before Donners had left to start an investigation into Aniston and get the focus shifted from Tony, Hermione had told him that Tony had been singled out for a reason, though none knew what that reason was. He promised to look into it and get back to them.

Remus, Mac and Palmer had to run almost an hour after the confrontation and promised to come back to check on Tony.

Harry and Hermione were just glad that everything would be getting back to normal.

* ** *

A week after the Forest showdown and Ron’s release, the Trio was taking a break from Quidditch fever as the match for the House Cup drew closer.

“I can’t believe everything’s over,” Hermione sighed, leaning back in the chair next to Tony’s bed.

“I’m just glad to be myself again,” Tony was on bed rest for another two weeks before he could do any kind of magic and gain a clean bill of health.

“But really,” Harry leaned forward in his chair on Tony’s other side. “Why say that me and Ron were the targets?” Donners, Palmer, Padfoot, Moony and Mac had been told the full story, but that was it. A copy of the real truth would be going on the file sealed until three years from when the investigation finished.

“Well, Ron’s mother can’t handle the responsibility of having been in this situation,” he shrugged. “Call it an intervention, if you will. She isn’t quite stable enough for the truth yet.”

Harry nodded. “That makes sense.” Hermione and Ron nodded, also wanting to spare sweet Mrs. Weasley the truth.

“Unfortunately, she’ll have to know eventually,” Tony told them. “But it won’t be for a while yet. Plus, she’s worried about the wedding on top of other stuff, so…”

“We can keep secrets,” Ron assured. He seemed almost smug to be keeping something from his mother.

“I know you can,” he nodded. “That’s why I went to you three for help.”

When they had to go some minutes later, Hermione paused before leaving. “You said that you didn’t tell the Dean’s son that he couldn’t do something unless you wanted to eat your words.”

“Yeah, did he?” Harry wanted to know.

“Did who what?”

“Did the disbelieving git eat his words?” Ron clarified.

At that, Tony smiled ironically. “As a matter of fact, yes, I did.”

* ** *

 


	52. Chapter 52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, all, Hyper here!
> 
> I thought this finished collecting enough dust to post. And why not? 
> 
> I started this on NYE and I'll end it on NYE. 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me through this story and be on the look out for Hermione's Day Out. It'll probably be out a few minutes after I post the last chapter. 
> 
> I'm halfway done with Cycles of Life - and I will try to not crumble to bits during certain parts of it, because I really really don't want to do what I'm about to do, but I have to for plot purposes (bring the tissues) - and the Secrets of Hogwarts is well on its way - as is the companion/ extended & deleted scene-type fic, Extra Points. 
> 
> I should probably warn you ahead of time that Secrets of Hogwarts is not a happy story. 
> 
> It is - I hope - dark at its core and some parts are scary as hell when you're reading them just before bed. I should know, I kept looking over my shoulder with a lamp on.
> 
> I have a complicated web to weave - and complicated it is, especially when I start introducing more crossovers -, but I hope to have fun doing it.
> 
> We'll see where the winds - and the New Year - takes us.
> 
> Wishing you well until next time,  
> H.

After a sound defeat of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor taking back the Cup, Donners, Mac and Palmer met the quartet back in Tony’s room.

Tony had felt well enough to attend the last match of the year and both Harry and Ron had played their very best.

“Congratulations,” Palmer shook their hands when Tony proudly broke the news. “You guys are really wonders out there.”

“So, we looked into DiNozzo’s involvement,” Donners began when all were settled. “Everything else checked out and I’m getting the report together as we speak. As for DiNozzo,” here, to everyone’s surprise, he turned slightly sheepish.

“What?” Palmer wanted to know.

“After extensive questioning of the staff and witnesses, it turns out that… well. Aniston had been having lunch meetings once a week with someone who knew someone who was under the eye of MIRS. One of the investigators had the bright idea to disguise himself as someone who many were familiar with – that being DiNozzo – in order to keep from drawing suspicion. Using that disguise, the investigator in question had asked the Witches to gather up information on all five of the superiors in that office to go over their trips and see where they went and who they spoke to. The Agents of MIRS had been planning to match up information connecting several others in the magical community to see just where the boundaries were. Aniston must have mistaken the undercover investigator with the actual DiNozzo when he was on one of his little snooping trips. Before the Ministry Killer began, there were several telephone calls from Aniston to the late Mr. Carlin. Presumably, the investigator was caught leaving the office by Aniston and was assumed to have overheard the incriminating conversation. However, it has been established that the only real thing overheard by anyone were snatches of words during several conversations.”

In the silence, Donners nodded to himself as the information sunk in.

“So,” Mac finally frowned, crossing her arms. “What I am understanding here, is that Tony was attacked by Aniston, because he suspected Tony of overhearing a conversation between him and his cousin about killing Molly Weasley’s potential future paramours simply for contacting her. Aniston panics, thinking that Tony is going to tell someone, so he starts following him to see what he does. Tony has no idea what’s going on, so Aniston decides to just kill Tony outright as an alternative option before Tony actually tells someone. Tony is attacked in the park and Apparates to Hogsmeade, where he is mistaken for someone else the Trio knows and is allowed to stay with them.

“Aniston decides to go through with killing Molly Weasley’s friends anyway as an attempt to find Tony, by framing him to be the Ministry Killer. Carlin, meanwhile, is after Ron because the cousins have this plan to drive a wedge between Molly and Arthur Weasley when they are too busy dealing with Ron’s serious, but nonfatal, injuries. Things happen, AJ Johnson is attacked for finding a ribbon that once belonged to Molly, and Ron doesn’t get hurt. Eventually, the cousins decide to spread the word to get Ron alone in the Forest and attempt to get him there. The cousins are obsessed with Molly and want Ron injured, while wanting Tony dead and actually killing people by pretending to be on official business to get in and close to the victims. And _all_ of this is because Aniston mistook an Agent with the _Magical Internal Revenue Service_ for actually being Tony as he was investigating five superiors for being connected to a tax evasion or fraud ring that wasn’t even happening in the same building as Tony’s actual Liaison office and Aniston panicked because he thought the same investigator had overheard plans to kill someone when, in reality, no one could have matched any word to any one conversation?”

She and Palmer slowly turned to look at Tony, who had a pillow over his face.

“How is this my life?” the muffled groan was agreed with whole-heartedly.

“Well, DiNozzo, look at it this way,” Donners cuffed his arm. “You’re off the hook for something you didn’t even do in the first place.”

“How is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“But, rest assured,” he continued, more solemn. “I _will_ be having strong words with the MIRS concerning this breach. We will make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

He left a few minutes later and Palmer shook his head.

“If that doesn’t beat all,” he huffed a laugh.

“So, it wasn’t what Tony did,” Ron finally found his voice, “but it was what someone _thought_ Tony did?”

“That’s what it looks like,” Mac shrugged.

“I’m having some trouble processing this,” Hermione rubbed her temples.

“You?” Tony looked at her incredulously. “How do you think _I_ feel? I’m the one that was set up to take the fall for something I didn’t do!”

Harry just had his head in his hands, not sure if he wanted to laugh over the year’s excitement being caused by a misunderstanding in the first place, or cry for the same reason.

Americans.

** ** * *

Once everything had calmed down just in time for the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year, the Trio wavered between going and staying.

“Well, my feelings won’t be hurt,” Tony shrugged, eating his chocolate pudding. “I’ve been spending enough time with the three of you anyway.”

“But we didn’t _know_ it was you,” Hermione shook her head.

“How did you two figure out that Tony was, you know, illegal?” Ron asked. “I never got an answer.”

They explained what Harry had told Hermione on the way to track him down.

“And you’re sure you nor your other three friends know why you don’t match your coloring as a dog?” Hermione confirmed.

“No. And believe us, we tried. In fact,” Tony mused. “I think that all four of us have something our animal has that our regular selves don’t. It’s been a hot topic since we actually became illegal.”

“Sparky, Pin and Booker, too?” Harry tilted his head to the side. “What are their animals?”

“I can’t tell you,” he shrugged. “It would sort of ruin the surprise. You’ll have to figure it out by yourselves. I have faith in you.”

“Did you have a name, too?” Ron asked.

Tony looked between the three of them. “Yes, actually. It’s why I was so surprised when you started calling me ‘Agent’. Running with the NCIS joke, it actually _was_ my name back at Creswell.”

“Huh,” Hermione smiled. “How about that?”

Tony, however, leaned toward Harry. “Exactly how sure are you that AJ’s _not_ a Seer?” 

He remembered what happened during Spring break. “I’m starting to wonder myself,” he admitted. “Uh, Hermione? Remember when AJ had her birthday party?”

“Yes, why?”

“Well, it’s why I was acting so off around her. That night, I ran into her upstairs and I think she was sleepwalking. But, you know how I said that Trelawney might not be as much of a flake as we thought? AJ had that same look on her face that Trelawney had every time she made a prophecy.”

“Harry,” Hermione started. “You cannot be telling me that you think AJ is a Seer.”

“Well,” Ron shrugged. “What else explains some of the things she says and does?”

“Did she?” Tony leveled a serious look at Harry. “Make a prophecy that night?”

It was kind of hard to believe still, all these weeks later, but Harry nodded. “Yeah. I remember it going something like ‘born as the seventh month dies’…”

“‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord has marked him as his equal, but he has power that the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives.’”

“That was it,” Harry stared at Tony. “How did you –?”

“I got lost in the Department of Mysteries,” Tony rubbed his hands over his face. “And somehow ended up in the Prophecy Room. There are _thousands_ of prophecies sitting in storage under the Ministry in that room. I went looking to see if there was any about anyone I knew and I came across your name. Well, naturally, I had to look, because what affects one of us four affects the rest. Then, when I noted it down, I went to make sure it was – in fact – you.”

“Which explains the files on James and Sirius that we found in your office,” Hermione breathed.

“Yes. I had to make sure… but, in doing so, I came across something you should know about Neville Longbottom.”

“What do you mean?” Ron frowned at him.

“We saw Neville when we went to see Mr. Weasley in St. Mungo’s,” Hermione told Tony, who nodded. “He said his parents were there.”

“And do you know why?” Tony looked them each in the eye. “What I found was that what was said about Harry could have _easily_ applied to Neville. His criteria matched up perfectly. I went further and found that the Longbottoms were put in St. Mungo’s because they were tortured. To the point of insanity.”

Hermione gasped and the boys paled. “Poor Neville.”

“Harry, if this is actually true, then that means that you are the one who is going to have to deal with him. Permanently. I don’t want to put all of this on you, but the evidence… well…”

“That must be why the Potters were under Fidelis,” Hermione closed her eyes. “Wormtail sold them out to the one person who wanted them dead. Wanted _Harry_ dead.”

Something occurred to him then, that he wished had occurred earlier. “That’s why I have to stay at my Aunt’s until I turn seventeen. Or at least until the wedding. You don’t think the Order knows about this, do you?”

“I think,” Tony rubbed his forehead. “I think that at least Dumbledore knows. I can’t be sure who else, but I think we should assume that one person knows in the Order… which would explain why they’re so controlling.”

“Don’t worry, Harry,” Ron wrapped an arm around his best mate. “We’re going to figure this out with you.”

“Of course we will,” Hermione agreed. “Tony?”

“Do I have a choice?” he nudged Harry’s arm with a grin. “I’m stuck with you for at least ten years, remember? I’m already in.”

Harry sighed, an unknown weight dropping from his shoulders. Whatever happens with this prophecy, he wouldn’t be alone.

“Now, go get Agent and smuggle back some Butterbeer,” Tony pointed toward the door of his private room. “That’s an order.”

“Okay,” Harry agreed, happy for something to do. “Don’t go anywhere, alright?”

“I’ve been threatened with leaving the bed before I’m ready,” he deadpanned. “I’ll be here.”

 

** * **


	53. Chapter 53

They came back to the school with the promised beverage and ran across AJ lurking on the way to the Hospital.

“Thank you so much, again, for helping take Aniston down,” Harry hugged her.

“Don’t worry about it,” she shook her head, smiling. “I actually wanted to give this back.”

He blinked down at Adrienne’s diary. “Oh, thanks… I didn’t even know it was missing.”

“I found it in my trunk,” she shrugged. “I didn’t read it, but I also don’t know how I got it…”

“Well, thank you for returning it,” Hermione beamed.

AJ waved them off down the hall.

When the Trio approached Tony’s half open door, they paused as they heard him talking to someone.

“I’m not going to disappear on you, honest. Just make yourself comfortable. No one’ll mind.”

Harry knocked on the door. “Tony?”

“Yeah, come in.”

They peered in to see Tony waving at them. Moving to enter, Harry noticed the rather puffed up cat staring at Tony with narrowed grey eyes from the small table in front of the bed.

“Don’t worry,” Tony assured. “He was just as worried as you were and decided to check up on me.”

“Is this one of your school mates?” Ron studied the calico.

“No, but he is also illegal. That’s Eames. He was just scared when I disappeared, so he just needs to calm down and _breathe_.”

It – he – didn’t look like he was breathing.

Hermione hovered next to the cat, not sure if she should touch him, when he leaned toward her a little. Glancing at Tony’s encouraging nod, she tentatively reached out to pet his head, gaining confidence as he nudged her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Eames,” she told him.

He meowed in response.

“So,” Tony raised a brow as he took a sip from the bottle. “Agent staying with Ginny?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded. Ginny and Neville had told them about how they had ran across Moony and Padfoot and how they went to the Headmaster about there being a _second_ black dog running around. Padfoot must have felt guilty for thinking something bad about the youngest Weasley because he stuck close to her.

Looking back at the diary, Harry held it out to Tony. “Remember the diary?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking at it thoughtfully. “I dumped that with the rest of that stuff in AJ’s care. Just figured that you didn’t want it found.”

“Thanks for that,” Ron smiled at him.

“Oh, now that I think of it,” Hermione looked up from petting Eames the cat. “Can you figure out how Adrienne Lewis got so convincing about being a Muggle? I say she’s a Ravenclaw.”

“Sure,” Tony took the diary and tilted his head as he really held it in his hands for the first time. “Oh.”

“Well?” Ron wanted to know.

“Convinced you that she’s a Ravenclaw writing as a Muggle, did she?” Tony looked around the small room for something. “Well, I hate to tell you this, Mi, but… she’s not.”

“What’s that mean?” Ron frowned. “She’s from another House?”

“No, I mean she’s a Muggle. See that book on potions over there? Give it to me.”

Now even Eames looked interested as Tony weighed the two books in his hands.

“Yup, just as I thought. You see,” he turned to his audience. “Muggle books feel differently than Magical books, but you can’t really tell unless you’re actually holding them at the same time.”

“I was holding a Quidditch book when I found it,” Harry suddenly remembered. “That must have been why it’s been bothering me ever since. It was obvious that one book felt differently than the other, but I didn’t give it another thought.”

“So, what was it doing in Flourish and Blotts? That’s where Harry found it,” Hermione frowned.

“I don’t know. Guess you’ll have to keep reading to find out.”

Harry took it back and nodded decisively. He was now dedicated to finding out whatever became of her.

“Oh, yeah,” Ron dug in his own pockets for a moment before extracting a small object. “I found this when I was alone in the Forest,” he explained, dropping it into Tony’s hand.

“A toy soldier,” Tony mused, turning it all around. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s plastic from before WWII. That’s a neat find, isn’t it? Keep it,” he told Ron. “Besides,” he added with a grin. “I think you were meant to find it,” he tipped it over to show the name scratched into the small stand where the soldier would be balanced on a flat surface.

“‘ _Ronnie’_ ,” Hermione grinned. “What are the chances of that?”

Ron took it back with a shrug. “Well, it’s got my name on it,” he told them. “I _should_ keep it.”

“So, anything else? Or can I finish the goodies you brought me?”

Tony wished them luck on their exams as they left a half hour later, Eames chewing on a gummy worm contentedly. Palmer had left half a bag for Tony and he had shared with them so that Ron could have a taste of Muggle candy.

“How do you think this got in the Forest?” Ron got his toy soldier out and flipped it in the air.

“I guess we’ll never know,” Hermione shrugged.

“I can’t wait until we find Adrienne,” Harry tucked the diary into his side. “So we can give it back to her.”

“If I had lost my diary,” Hermione agreed, “I would want someone to return it.”

“We should probably be thinking of how to explain it coming to us,” Ron pointed out. “She might not know about magic.”

“If she’s still alive,” Harry shrugged. “Who knows how long it’s been since she’s seen it.”

“Well, that’s pretty much the last thing from this year that I would like to find the answer to,” Hermione threaded her arms through those of her friends. “But no pressure. I’m going to concentrate on the exams, first. Then I’m going to relax from a stressful year, before I can tackle running down a Muggle to give her diary back.”

The boys agreed to shelve the diary mystery until after the wedding, when they had sufficiently recovered from the stress and drama of the past year.

Little would they suspect the stress and drama that were sure to come in future months, but for now, they headed back to Gryffindor Tower to deal with the current issue of exams.

** * *

After that, what was left of the school year flew by.

Remus and Sirius had to leave and the school bid ‘Agent’ a teary farewell until his next visit with his caretaker. Harry wouldn’t be able to bring him next year, since this year had been a special case, but Remus promised to bring him for a visit.

But they didn’t leave before Sirius and Tony presented an almost identical mirror image.

“It’s extraordinary,” Remus shook his head an hour before their departure. “Even I have trouble telling them apart.”

But as much as they looked the same, they were not actually identical.

Had Tony had his true coloring, he would have had brown fur and green eyes. As it was, Agent’s coat was a shade lighter than Padfoot’s, but not all that much difference between them. The size of their paws were different as well as the shape, their noses were shaped differently with Padfoot’s being a little more square, Agent’s tail was slightly longer and the American was a tad bigger than his British counterpart.

Even the ears were different, but you couldn’t tell them apart unless you were looking at them side by side.

“Was it any wonder we mistook Agent for Padfoot?” Hermione grinned. “Now we know what to look for.”

Eventually, though, Tony had to depart, himself.

“I’ll see you at the wedding,” he assured, the Trio refusing to release him from the group hug.

“You better,” Ron threatened, red eyes betraying his attempt at looking intimidating. “We’re all expecting you to be there.”

“You can bring Mac and Palmer with you,” Harry added. “They grow on you after a while.”

“That they do,” Tony chuckled. “Alright, you twisted my arm. I’ll ask when I see them tomorrow.” He still had to report to Director Vance and give him the real story, too. “And who knows. I might run into one of you before then.”

They saw him off in the Headmaster’s office, who may or may not have been wiping a tear from his sparkling blue eyes as he witnessed the emotional farewell, before heading down to one of the last lunches of the year.

Then, the time came for the students to get back on the Hogwarts Express for the trip home.

“I’ll see you at the wedding,” Vince told them, Ron having invited him after Spring break. “So, it’s not good-bye. It’s see you later.”

“Alright,” AJ hugged him. “See you later.”

The Trio invited AJ to sit with them, but she declined in order to sit with the triplets.

“The end of my First Year,” she told them before the train left Hogsmeade Station.

“It’s only going to get better,” Ron told her.

“How did you like it?” Harry wanted to know.

“It was alright, though I don’t think the teachers can be trusted, yet,” she shrugged. “I think I can live with being a Witch.”

“And we’ll see you at the wedding, too,” Hermione hugged her tight.

Once it was just the three of them, they stood at the window to wave goodbye to Hagrid as the train moved past.

“All in all,” Hermione sighed. “It was a good year.”

Harry agreed.

They went to see new places and met new people – and even survived dinner with the NCIS team! And they even helped solve a series of murders.

With that under their belts, Harry was confident that they would be able to handle whatever life would throw their way next year.

He couldn’t wait to get started.

* ** *


	54. Chapter 54

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

 

Tony breathed in deeply as he strode onto the elevator. 

He wasn’t going to be heading into the office today, but he did promise Abby that he would stop by after she called yesterday.

It was honestly good to be back.

He stretched slightly as he stepped out of the elevator to the door of the lab. With all the excitement going on – clearing out Carlin’s office and quarters at Hogwarts (and that wasn’t traumatizing at _all_ ), and whatnot – he had completely forgotten to tell the Trio about his idea for keeping track of who knew about the marriage bond.

It had been when he had written the prophecy down in his MNP notebook that he’d been struck with the idea of using a similar notebook for the marriage bond. He’d been meaning to run it past the kids, but things got crazy real quick.

Making a note of it for later, he finally entered the lab and was quickly tackled by the waiting Goth.

“Tony, oh my gosh,” she almost strangled him. “I just got word about what happened and I cannot tell you how happy I am about it! Well, not that I’m happy you were in Witness Protection, but happy as in I am just so pleased that it really wasn’t voluntary that you dropped off the face of the planet, after all. You couldn’t get a word to anyone because of you hiding from that cartel jerk from back when you were in Philly. Everyone knows about it, so don’t you worry another minute about it.”

It was at times like this that Tony could see both Abby and Sherlock getting along, solely because they had this strange ability to make him feel like he’d just entered in the middle of a conversation.

“… Huh?”

“Not that Boss is happy, but what can you do, you know? Not your fault, but now that he’s been caught again, you can come back to where you belong!”

“That’s great… and who, exactly, am I going to need to thank for spreading the news?”

He kept his smile all during her explanation, not giving any hint to the letter he was mentally writing.

_Dear Harry,_

_Eames is a dead man._

 

** ** ** ** END ** ** **

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Very Special NCIS Liaison Sally Malik](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2003577) by [HyperMint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperMint/pseuds/HyperMint)




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